Tony Ferguson harbors no affection for Khabib Nurmagomedov and recently launched insults at his longtime adversary as Ferguson gears up for his boxing debut this weekend. Ferguson is set to face Salt Papi for the MFB interim middleweight championship at Misfits Boxing 22 on August 30th, with the Saturday event being topped by an MFB bridgerweight title fight between Luke Rockhold and Darren Till.
In a conversation on Ringside with Abbas, Ferguson discussed various topics leading up to his bout this Saturday, including his ongoing grievances with ‘The Eagle’. Ferguson hinted that Nurmagomedov would have encountered difficulties if any of the numerous fight arrangements between them had actually occurred, and he also referred to a contentious video that has circulated over the years featuring Khabib.
Expressing his latest series of verbal jabs toward the unbeaten professional mixed martial artist, Ferguson stated,
“Khabib’s father was the one who rescued him from some serious beatings, getting injured and stitched up and such. He did some silly things in New York, made some homeless individuals do push-ups and tossed money at them like they were strippers, which is absurd. Him and his cousin are tight, and when it comes down to it, I prefer to support those who can’t fend for themselves, and that’s something I’ve always done.”
Tony Ferguson asserts Conor McGregor hindered his TUF coaching chance against Khabib Nurmagomedov
Tony Ferguson had aspirations to coach a season of The Ultimate Fighter against Khabib Nurmagomedov after several fight bookings fell through. However, it was reported that Conor McGregor interfered. Ferguson claimed this situation took place in 2023 for The Ultimate Fighter 31 until ‘The Notorious’ allegedly got in the way.
The former UFC interim lightweight champion recently recounted this situation to MMA Fighting, as Tony Ferguson mentioned [via Bloody Elbow],
“I was attempting to get Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. I told my wife, we’re taking these fights, and we’re going to release some footage so that Khabib takes the bait. He’s definitely going to want to take it. That was when Conor McNuggets [McGregor] and [Michael] Chandler ended up coaching against one another.”
“Because I reached out to gauge interest for Khabib and me to coach on The Ultimate Fighter. We had established agreements with the UFC, and we had signed agreements with Ali [Abdelaziz] and everyone else, and that was the time he didn’t go and support his cousin. He had a lot of other issues that were happening. Apart from that, the excitement has never been there.”
