Tony Ferguson recently claimed that Khabib Nurmagomedov is scared to fight him, but while that may be overstating the case, the lightweight champion has acknowledged that he’s more motivated to fight ‘El Cucuy’ then any of his other recent opponents.
“I’m in this dude’s head,” Ferguson had told Ariel Helwani earlier this week. “He’s looking at me. He’s going to train so hard. He’s going to be so nervous he’s going to make a mistake. I’m going to capitalize on that. I’m going to catch him during the scrambles. Scrambled eggs, baby. I’m going to make him piss blood. I owe him two to the chops, and he owes me 20 push-ups. This guy’s got an issue, and his name is Tony Ferguson. And I’m coming after him. It’s hunting season, baby.”
Nurmagomedov appears not to be looking to downplay the threat that Ferguson brings, and instead has been making it clear that he intends to come into this fight better than ever to make sure that he comes out on top against his rival.
“I will train hard,” Nurmagomedov said in an interview in his native Dagestan. “With every fight, I gain more and more experience. Im getting older, I am 31. I think it’s the peak age of fighters career.
“And to be honest, I lacked this motivation for my last fights. Iaquinta, Conor, Barboza, Poirier. They’re not the same as Tony Ferguson. Thats why i feel that fire burning inside me again.
“I will train hard. With every fight, I gain more and more experience. I’m getting older, I am 31. I think it’s the peak age of a fighter’s career. Of course, I will train more for this fight because I got a worthy opponent. He is very good and very dangerous opponent.
And to be honest, I lacked this motivation for my last fights. Iaquinta, Conor, Barboza, Poirier. They’re not the same as Tony Ferguson. That’s why I feel that fire burning inside me again.
