Khabib Nurmagomedov says things could’ve gone a lot worse as a result of his failed weight cut.
“The Eagle” was set to battle Tony Ferguson for the interim Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight title inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada last month. The bout was going to be UFC 209’s co-main event. It didn’t take place as Nurmagomedov’s weight cut went awry and he couldn’t be cleared to compete.
During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Nurmagomedov revealed the weight cut almost killed him:
“The doctor said, ‘you cannot fight. You almost died. How (are) you (gonna) fight? How you can fight if you almost died? … No way. We said no fight, 100 percent. (You didn’t) make weight. No fight. No nothing. You need to stay in the hospital for seven hours, we have to make sure your body is good.’ But I feel I almost died. We know a lot of times when you’re cutting weight, you can die. I know one month ago somebody died in Brazil. Before, somebody died in Japan. We know sometimes this happens. But this can happen with me too. If we’re still cutting weight, and we still force my body, maybe I can die too?”
