Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov exchanged a lot of words but the challenger was carrying a belt at the UFC 249 face-off
Things got extremely heated between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov as the Lightweight fighters conducted a face-off ahead of UFC 249.
For almost 30 minutes or so, the pair shot barbs at each other and built up the big event in April.
Khabib comes into the clash unbeaten in his MMA career and having defeated some top stars such as Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.
Ferguson, for his part, is one of the toughest fighters in the business but he was also carrying a belt at the UFC 249 press conference.
That comes as a surprise as Khabib is the champion but Ferguson holds an interim Lightweight belt from the title fight at UFC 223.
That was supposed to see Khabib taking on Tony, but the UFC stripped him from that title fight. Ferguson still kept hold of the belt while Khabib defeated his replacement, Al Iaquinta to win the title in the end.
What happened between Khabib and Ferguson at the press conference?
Apart from sharing barbs at each other, there was more to come between them. The faced-off with Dana White in the middle and Ferguson actually kept his title on the ground.
Khabib was carrying his UFC Lightweight title and Ferguson constantly provoked the champion to place that on the ground too.
After Tony Ferguson placed his belt down, @TeamKhabib took the opportunity to kick it clear off the stage 馃Φ #UFC249 pic.twitter.com/gCwxlu6cTK
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 6, 2020
However, the champion didn鈥檛 take the bait and kicked Ferguson鈥檚 title off the floor. That was seen as disrespectful by Ferguson, however, cooler heads prevailed and no clashes occurred between the two stars.
The duo have been on a collision course for a while. They have been billed to fight four times in the past.
However, something or another has come up and all their fights have been called off. Sometimes one of the fighters got injured or got sick, but we should finally get this clash on April 19.
Ferguson has just three losses in his MMA career. However, many have claimed he will be a tough challenger to Khabib.
The Russian, for his part, looks to be in great shape but cannot take Ferguson lightly.
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