Tony ‘El Cucuy’ Ferguson. Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov. These two lightweights are finally set to do battle at UFC 223 on April 7 for the lightweight title (assuming the UFC stand by their word and strip ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor).
This is no doubt the best bout the UFC could draw up in any division right now and it has come at the perfect time for the company struggling for box office stars.
Sure, Khabib and Ferguson aren’t huge draws on their own, but they will be after this.
Tony Ferguson is the current interim lightweight champion, as a result of McGregor’s money chase in the ring against Floyd Mayweather. The 34-year-old is 23-3 and is currently on a ten-fight win streak. He is an NCWA national champion and Jiu-Jitsu black belt.
He has vicious striking in the clinch, he’s comfortable on his back and has a range of submissions from this position. Not to mention, he is also extremely well-conditioned.
Nurmagomedov (25-0) is a two-time SAMBO Combat World Champion, freestyle wrestler and Judo black belt. He is an absolute animal in the octagon, completely manhandling every opponent he has faced.
The 29-year-old’s ground-and-pound is second to none, suffocating his opponents with sustained pressure.
Take his last fight against Edson Barboza for example. Very early in the match, it was clear Khabib’s opponent did not believe he would get to impose any sort of his own game plan on ‘The Eagle’.
Now let’s take things back to December of 2015. This is the first time the pair were due to face each other in the octagon.
Khabib had come off an utterly dominant performance against Rafael Dos Anjos (who would go on to win the lightweight title via Dan Henderson, Nate Diaz and Anthony Pettis less than 12 months later).
Ferguson had amassed an impressive six-fight win streak himself, showcasing his unorthodox striking and impressive range of submissions. Unfortunately, Khabib was forced to withdraw following a rib injury.
Following Khabib’s withdrawal, ‘El Cucuy’ was drawn to face Barboza. Ferguson took the fight to his opponent, but in the first round was largely outfought, consistently getting caught on the counter.
Round two saw Ferguson open up Barboza with a nasty spinning elbow. Eventually, the fierce fighter took it to the floor and finished with an impressive D’Arce choke.
The bout with Ferguson was rescheduled to take place in April 2016, but this time Tony was forced to withdraw due to the blood and fluid that was found in his lung.
Eventually, Ferguson was replaced by Darrell Horcher.
Horcher came from Cage Fighting Fury Championship with a record of 12-1 but was truly out of his depth against the Eagle, who himself was battling injuries over a two-year layover.
He was able to land a few early punches, but Khabib did what Khabib does and took him down and worked him over – luckily for Horcher, he was saved by the bell.
When round two began, Khabib hunted him down, got the takedown with ease and finished with a TKO.
In September, Khabib had signed a contract to fight then-lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez for the title, but it seems Alvarez chose McGregor as the worthy opponent (or best for his bank account anyway).
Khabib was very vocal about his displeasure with the UFC going down the path of money fights rather than having the top-ranked fighters facing each other.
On November 5, Ferguson had put his withdrawal behind him and took centre stage against Rafael Dos Anjos.
In a very good five-round fight, both fighters showed off their skills. However, it was Ferguson’s superior conditioning that saw him take the decisive ‘championship rounds’ and win the fight in a decision.
In light of the UFC moving away from his title shot, Khabib faced off against Michael Johnson. ‘The Eagle’ completely dominated Johnson and earned himself a third-round kimura submission.
The two corresponding win streaks resulted in another booking for their showdown at UFC 209 in March, 2017.
Third time’s the charm, right? Wrong.
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Khabib got his weight cut all wrong and was forced to the hospital prior to the weigh-ins. Soon after, the fight was called off.
Ferguson continued to knock off the top contenders, desperate to keep his number one contender position intact, following the mess the division was in due to McGregor’s boxing antics.
The UFC kept him reasonably happy with the interim title on the line, holding the belief that a victory over Kevin Lee would force the UFC and Conor’s hand into giving him the title shot he had long deserved.
He finished Lee off with a triangle choke in the third round and was promptly crowned interim champion. But if you were to ask Ferguson, it was at this point that he became the real champion.
December 30 saw Khabib make his highly anticipated return to the UFC. He destroyed Barboza in a fight that truly began to put his name into mainstream MMA. It was a mauling of the highest degree.
Make no mistake of Barboza’s credentials, as he is currently the number four lightweight contender, but he was made to look so incredibly inferior against the undefeated beast.
With McGregor still no closer to a return date after banking a reported $100 million (with a large percentage of this going to the UFC), the only option was to pit Ferguson against Khabib. Finally, it seems to have come to fruition.
Surely nothing comes between the two best lightweights in the division. There are no fighters left standing worthy of being in conversation alongside these two men.
And so here we are less than two weeks away from one of the most anticipated fights of 2018 from a pure MMA perspective. Stylistically, it should be a very entertaining fight.
Khabib is happy to eat strikes to get in close – and when he wants to take you down, he does… Again, and again, and again.
But Ferguson is violent in the clinch, featuring some nasty elbows and short punches. He’s also comfortable on his back which could spell trouble for ‘El Cucuy’. Nobody is accustomed to Khabib’s brute force and relentless energy bearing down on you.
There’s no doubt the fight will go to the floor, but will Ferguson’s creativity be enough to overcome the bear that Khabib morphs into when he has you where he wants?
I expect to see Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov get the decision victory and establish himself as potentially the best MMA fighter of all-time.
He’s got a long way to go, but now that he seems to have his weight management in check – it is entirely in his hands.
But it won’t just go his way the entire fight. Ferguson undeniably poses very real threats in the clinch and off his back, but Khabib’s pressure and control will be far too much to handle.
The key for Ferguson won’t necessarily be avoiding the takedown, but working himself into favourable positions to minimise Khabib’s effectiveness, then forcing his way back to his feet.
If either man isn’t a household name after this fight, they certainly will be when McGregor returns in the latter part of 2018 (fingers crossed) and has his pick at who he battles.
A return to lightweight seems the most logical at this stage, but we all know, Conor does what Conor wants.
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