Tony Ferguson Details Negotiations For Khabib Nurmagomedov Fight
It seems that Tony Ferguson will be facing Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 249 in April. However, as he tells it, the negotiations were not that simple.
It was reported that Khabib had signed his end of the contract to fight Ferguson. However, it was not until several days later that Tony returned the favor. Due to the fact that the UFC is notorious for it’s hardball negotiating style, there was concerns that something would cause it to fall through.
In the end, the bout was signed, and is set for April 18th, in Brooklyn, New York. Subsequently Ferguson detailed the process with Ariel Helwani. Although things worked out in the end, there was a time that was challenging.
“The manner that they did it really, to me, wasn’t the way I wanted to go, so it made the week kind of unpleasant. But my fans, they’re freaking great. they didn’t really know what was going on, but they kept it lighthearted for me. My family is doing great, but It was about as smooth as a bumpy road, but we got to our destination, which was cool.”
Ferguson went on to detail the process of getting the bout signed.
“The process wasn’t the way I envisioned it going. That’s why I wanted to sit down with the UFC. It’s about time we actually started having conversations and me being a little more personable with the company. It went good. I can’t say that it went bad. It just took a little bit of time and a process. I’m just lucky I had my agents there who have my back.”
There was some concern about the fight being all the way in April, four months from now. Ferguson and Khabib have been scheduled to fight four times, with all bouts falling through. Therefore, there was some questions about why they booked it in April, instead of sooner.
“You’re going to have to ask the UFC. Khabib is still on his world tour. He’s doing things, kissing babies, and signing pictures, and doing all that fun stuff. Who cares? You know I’m ready for February. I was ready to take another opponent if they were going to f—ing do some crazy stuff. But everything worked out. We’ve got until April, We’ve got plenty of time to train. We’ve got plenty of time to not get hurt, to be very smart and trust our teams and give the fans exactly what they f—ing want. The fifth time’s the charm.”
Tony further adds he wants to hurt ‘Eagle’ so bad.
“I told everybody I’m going to make him piss blood”
As of right now, Khabib Nurmagomedov is expected to face Tony Ferguson on April 18th. If there was some struggles in the negotiations, it is a good thing the bout was able to be worked out. It is arguably the greatest fight on paper, in MMA history.
