UFC Star Tony Ferguson Reflects on Impact of Khabib Nurmagomedov's Retirement
Tony Ferguson has revealed that he keeps competing "win or lose" with the hopes that his long-time rival Khabib Nurmagomedov will return from retirement.
The back-and-forth battle between Ferguson and Nurmagomedov from 2015-2020 shines as a genuinely legendary saga. With an astounding five canceled bouts, it appeared as though destiny itself was determined to keep them apart. In May 2020, Nurmagomedov did the unexpected and retired without warning, closing the door on any potential matchup with "El Cucuy".
In an appearance on 'The MMA Hour' on October 2, Ferguson recounted his rival's shock retirement and how it affected him:
"Once Khabib retired, that kind of went poof --- the energy levels, everything I'd been training for that f****** dude," Ferguson explained. "I know when Khabib left... a little part of me left with that. Kind of sucked a little bit because we've always had that - I don't want to say negative energy but that hype that was built around [the fight]. And when that disappeared [in the pandemic]... there was nothing else left for me."
Ferguson opened up on the fact that he keeps competing with the hopes that Nurmagomedov might return:
"What I told myself was that I wanted to compete, I wanted to compete enough so that possibly, win or lose, Khabib would come back," Ferguson admitted. "We almost coached on The Ultimate Fighter. The season where Chandler and McGregor coached, we were verbally agreed to have coached. ...A couple of months passed, and he didn't even go and corner [Islam Makhachev], which was one thing. ...That was like another bummer, I was like 'f*** really?'."
The former interim lightweight champ lamented on his self-discovery post-Nurmagomedov retirement:
"...Anger is not one thing you want to keep holding on to, that frustration that comes with it. I still don't want to shake the f*****'s hand he's still fat in my book... Conor [McGregor's] still a little b**** too, but at the end of the day, there's another day the next day."
Whilst Ferguson insists that he continues in the spirit of competition and with the anticipation of Nurmagomedov's potential return, but "The Eagle" has a different perspective on the matter:
"[Ferguson] continues to fight. He needs money," Nurmagomedov told UFC Russia in October 2022. "You have to pay your bills in the U.S. and I’m sure that since he’s a Californian ...everything he earned, take half of that. I think he keeps fighting for money to pay for bills [and] taxes. He has a family, I think he has two kids. I don’t blame him but you can’t get back time. When your time goes away it doesn’t ask [for] your name."
Ferguson versus Nurmagomedov may be forever etched in the annals of history as one of the most eagerly awaited showdowns that sadly never came to fruition, joining the ranks of Bowe versus Lewis, Fedor versus Couture, and numerous other bouts consigned to the "fights that should have happened" graveyard.
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