Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov are reportedly set to square off at UFC 223 on April 7 in New York at Brooklyn’s Barclays. It looks like UFC isn’t playing around this year.
There is another big fight being slated to join UFC 223. Rose Namajunas is expected to defend her UFC strawweight championship against former champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk after shockingly lost her title at UFC 217 in one of the organization’s biggest upsets in their history.
The news first reported by TalkMMA, the report has now been confirmed by Ariel Helwani as being discussed, but not finalized yet.
Rose Namajunas to defend her title against Joanna Jedrzejczyk April 7th at #UFC223 (No location/venue announced yet)
— #Dizz (@TalkMMA) January 16, 2018
Tony Ferguson interim champ and undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov are getting another chance to settle their longstanding dispute.
UFC president Dana White appeared on the “Toucher and Rich” radio show on Wednesday morning, where he mentioned that he expected the Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov matchup to take place in Brooklyn.
“That fight is going to happen. It will happen.”
Nurmagomedov improved his pro record to 25-0 with a lopsided unanimous decision victory over Brazilian striker Edson Barboza at UFC 219 on Dec. 30.
Tony Ferguson scored an interim belt at UFC 216 when he beat Kevin Lee via third-round triangle choke submission. It was the 10th consecutive win for Ferguson who improved to 23-3 as a pro.
Let’s say if all the fights are finalized, Nurmagomedov and Ferguson for the lightweight title should be the main event, with Jedrzejczyk’s effort at winning back her strawweight title against Namajunas being the co-main. No matter what the rest of the card looks like, that’s a badass fight card filled with exciting, high drama clash.
Rose Namajunas rematch may be surprising to some people, but not to her as she may have even been hinting at the rematch on Monday. Speaking with MMAjunkie at UFC Fight Night 124 event in St. Louis, Namajunas revealed rematch, it made sense and even targeted her next fight to be in April.
“[It makes sense] for a different number of reasons. I think [Joanna Jedrzejczyk]’s definitely the fight that most people want to see, but I’m always open to fighting anyone. We’ll see. I’ve got some travelling coming up this month, I was thinking Spring, maybe April. […] I never really took anything [she did] personal, even after the fact. That’s just what she had to do. That was her best strategy to beat me, but it didn’t work, and it’s still not going to work.”
