A UFC Interim Lightweight Champion will be crowned at UFC 209 as Khabib Nurmagomedov faces Tony Ferguson.
Ferguson, while acknowledging his foe's undefeated record, questions his skills as a wrestler, claiming that his are better.
“I’ve got respect for where he came from, but my wrestling is far superior,” Ferguson said during the UFC 209 conference call. “And my style is just completely different than his. My freestyle background — I’m going to run circles around this guy.”
It's worth noting that Nurmagomedov in one fight (against Abel Trujillo) scored over five times the takedowns that Ferguson has his entire UFC career. Nurmagomedov and Ferguson have been trading barbs for quite some time now leading into the fight. In fact, Ferguson says his skills are so much better than Nurmagomedov, that when they meet at UFC 209, Nurmagomedov will be flipped all over the place.
“I’m going to throw you, from your head to your toes. I’ll flip you upside down and everyone is going to see it. Nobody will be able to save your ass this time. I’m going to break your spirit,” Ferguson said. “You didn’t do sh-t. Your padded record ain’t nothing.”
UFC 209 takes place on Saturday, March 4 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson headlining. Fightful will be providing lie coverage on the event, followed by a post-show podcast.
