Tony Ferguson has no love lost for Khabib Nurmagomedov and recently threw barbs at his long-time rival as Ferguson prepares for his boxing debut this weekend. Ferguson will clash with Salt Papi for the MFB interim middleweight title at Misfits Boxing 22 on August 30th, with the Saturday card being headlined by an MFB bridgerweight title bout between Luke Rockhold and Darren Till.
During an interview on Ringside with Abbas, Ferguson addressed several subjects ahead of his sweet science showdown this Saturday, including his remaining issues with ‘The Eagle’. Ferguson intimated that Nurmagomedov would have had a rough night if any of the multiple bout bookings that were locked in between them ever came to fruition, and also referenced a controversial video that has popped up over the years with Khabib.
Unleashing his most recent round of verbal volleys towards the unbeaten professional mixed martial artist, Ferguson said,
“Khabib’s dad was the one that saved him from some real ass whoopings, getting bloody and stitched up and stuff. He did some foolish things in New York, made some homeless do push-ups and threw money at them like they were strippers, which is ridiculous. Him and his cousin rock, when it goes into it, I like to be able to look after people that can’t look after themselves, and I’ve always done that.”
Tony Ferguson claims Conor McGregor cost him TUF coaching opportunity against Khabib Nurmagomedov
Tony Ferguson wanted to coach on a season of The Ultimate Fighter against Khabib Nurmagomedov after a handful of fight bookings fell by the wayside. But Conor McGregor was said to have gotten in the way of that. Ferguson claimed this happened in 2023 for The Ultimate Fighter 31 until ‘The Notorious’ was said to have gotten in the way of that.
The former UFC interim lightweight champion recently described this situation to MMA Fighting, as Tony Ferguson stated [via Bloody Elbow],
“I was trying to get Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. I said to my wife, we’re going to take these fights, and what we’re going to do is put some film out there so that way, Khabib takes the bait. He’s going to want to take the bait. That was when Conor McNuggets [McGregor] and [Michael] Chandler ended up coaching against each other.”
“Because I put that feeler out there for me and Khabib to go and coach on The Ultimate Fighter. We had signed agreements with the UFC, we had signed with Ali [Abdelaziz] and everybody else, and that was the time he didn’t go and corner his cousin. So he had a lot of extra s*** that was going on. Other than that, the interest has never been there.”
