I en sport som är full av ont blod, rivalitet och trash talk så händer det ofta att respekt kommer i andra hand. Under veckan hamnade lättvikts mästaren i UFC Khabib Nurmagomedov och den forna mästaren Conor McGregor i ett av de grövsta Twitter-bråken i MMAs historia.
Men i torsdags så uttryckte MMA-stjärnan från Dagestan respektfullt sitt stöd för en annan rival Tony Ferguson, då det förra månaden kom fram oroväckande uppgifter enligt bl.a. MMA Junkie angående den forna UFC-interim mästaren i lättvikt och hans psykiska ohälsa.
Nedan kan vi se vad Khabib hade att säga under en intervju vid en Q&A träff i Moskva med RT Sport:
’May God give him good health’: Khabib offers support to Tony Ferguson, hopes ’dream fight’ will happen
READ MORE: https://t.co/hAal5CxT8Q@TeamKhabib @TonyFergusonXT pic.twitter.com/7r30AC5SjW
— RT Sport (@RTSportNews) April 5, 2019
Här kan ni läsa utdrag av vad Khabib hade att säga i intervjun:
From what I understood at least, there were some reports about calls to the police, I really don’t want to go into details. Because I myself wouldn’t want to have that sort of attention.
I can only imagine how hard it is for him, especially since it’s about his family. Again, I didn’t follow it closely, just like like you I read some things on the internet. May God give him health and the best of luck. Sport is sport, but family is family.
And let’s hope he’ll return, it’s very strange to see him away, he has an 11-fight win streak in the lightweight division. And now he’s on the sidelines.
I guess that just means that at this moment in time he has to go through this test. Each person faces their own challenge, some people get ill, some people let money go to their heads, some people drink. Someone has ‘star fever. Different people face tests in different ways. Someone had a surgery, someone is a champion who doesn’t have time for training.
So each person faces their own challenge and it looks like he will have to go through his own challenge. Let’s hope he’ll come out as a winner and come back, and hopefully we’ll fight one day.
Kommer matchen bli av?
Nurmagomedov och Ferguson har varit bokade för att möta varandra fyra gånger tidigare, men pga av olika omständigheter för dom båda så har det aldrig blivit ett möte.
När han vidare fick frågan om en fight mot Ferguson fortfarande skulle vara intressant så svarade Khabib utan att tveka:
Yes, it’s a great fight, it’s one of the best… Not even one of the best, it’s the most anticipated fight in the UFC. I’ve been told about it by the UFC owners because they monitor what people say on the internet. And this is the most anticipated fight at the moments. So let’s hope he comes back.
Nu återstår det att se om Ferguson kommer att återhämta sig så att en match mellan dom båda kan bli verklighet.
