Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will do battle next Saturday night (March 4).
“The Eagle” vs. “El Cucuy” is going to be contested for the interim Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight title. The winner will likely meet 155-pound kingpin Conor McGregor in a unification bout later this year.
No. 9 ranked UFC 155-pounder Beneil Dariush was recently interviewed by Bloody Elbow. He discussed the state of the lightweight division and his prediction for the interim title match:
“If Conor’s not coming back to the 155 [pound] division, then Khabib and Tony, whoever wins is going to be the legitimate champion. That’s pretty much how I see it. If not, well shoot, I don’t know. From the looks of it, I think Conor [McGregor] might not be coming back. I don’t know; he might. Who knows? So, however that goes, we’ll figure it out. At this point, Conor is still the champ. I’m not going to take away what he’s done, but if he walks away from the sport, It’s definitely Khabib and Tony. It’s one of those fights where I want to pick Khabib, for sure, but I’m telling you, Tony can change that fight at any minute. So, it’s going to all come down to who’s going to be able to stay focused throughout that 25 minutes, and implement their game… I’m picking Khabib, still, but we’ll see.”
