Khabib Nurmagomedov has warned former rival Tony Ferguson he will never recapture his former glory.
The legendary former UFC champion was due to fight Ferguson on five separate occasions, but they were all cancelled due to a variety of reasons ranging from weight cut issues to injuries to a pandemic. And by the time Nurmagomedov was ready to defend his belt in October 2020 for one last time, Ferguson had already begun a losing streak that would continue to this day.
Initially signed up to fight in an undercard bout in 2015, Ferguson and Nurmagomedov's bout was always deemed the one that could define the Russian's legacy. But it never came to fruition, and now the ex-champion believes that Ferguson must understand that his time in the sport has come.
The American is currently riding a five-fight losing skid after having picked up an impressive 12-fight UFC winning streak. He was most recently submitted by Nate Diaz who was on his way out of the promotion, but refuses to commit to retirement despite his obvious decline that has seen him stopped three times in those five losses.
“His time is up and there’s no way to get it back,” Nurmagomedov told the UFC Russia YouTube page, before insisting that the likely reason that his rival is fighting is to pay his bills . “Not Khabib, not Tony, nobody. We had our time, and it passed. He continues to fight. He needs money."
Ferguson is a native of California and trains in the West Coast state for his fights. Having now reached a massive earning point in his career, the fighter is expected to be exorbitant taxes, which Nurmagomedov feels is also a major factor in his decision to continue fighting.
"You have to pay your bills in the US," he explained. "And I’m sure that since he’s a Californian, I know all the Californian fighters - everything he earned, they take half of that. I think he keeps fighting for money to pay bills, 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 your name"
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Nurmagomedov and Ferguson's initial meeting was cancelled in November 2015 due to a rib injury to the Russian. When they rescheduled for the following April, it was Ferguson's turn to withdraw with an injury of his own. They were about to fight for Conor McGregor's vacated lightweight belt in 2017 when Nurmagomedov was hospitalised during his weight cut.
But things began to get really comical when a fourth bout was scheduled between the pair for the following April at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The pair arrived in New York, only for Ferguson to trip over a wire while doing a media appearance and injure himself severely enough to pull out of the fight.
Their final attempt at fighting would have worked perfectly, with both fighters fully fit and ready to fight on the April 18 date that was planned. However, that bout was scrapped as one of the first events cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.