En match mellan Khabib Nurmagomedov och Tony Ferguson skulle tagit sin plats under UFC 209 i lättviktsdivisionen. Ett interimbälte stod på spel men Nurmagomedov fick stora problem vid hans bantning timmar innan matchen skulle ta sin plats. Nu talar den obesegrade ryssen ut och hade följande att säga genom ”The MMA Hour”.
The doctor say, ‘you cannot fight. You almost die. How you fight? How you can fight if you almost die? … No way. We say no fight, 100 percent. No 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 still cutting weight, and we still force my body, maybe I can die too?
Nurmagomedov har inga tankar på varken flytt upp till weltervikt eller lägga handskarna på hyllan utan menade att han kommer komma tillbaka starkare än någonsin
But it’s okay. Sometimes when I have injury or when I have bad situation, I all the time come back strong. Now, I know a lot of people asked about this, a lot of fans asked about this because this is a very big fight. The UFC promote this fight very good. We promote this fight. A lot of people are waiting for this fight. I know a lot of fans are upset about this, and I understand this, but I want to say sorry about everything. And I come back. I’m going to come back.
Nurmagomedov, en av få utövare inom MMA som är obesegrad på den absolut högsta nivån. Ryssen har ett MMA-facit på 24-0 där 8 matcher avslutats via domslut, 8 matcher via submission och 8 matcher via teknisk knockout eller ren knockout.
