5 Talking Points from UFC 209
So UFC 209 is in the books and it was a decidedly mixed bag. We got some good fights, some fun action, but also one of the worst main events in recent memory. The card undoubtedly would've been better had we still got Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov as our co-main event, but, well, we'll get into that in a second.
As with all of the UFC's big cards, there will be plenty of talking points coming away from it. Here's five to start us off.
#1 Where now for Khabib?
When it was announced late on Friday night that Khabib Nurmagomedov had been hospitalised due to a botched weight cut, forcing the cancellation of his fight with Tony Ferguson, the first obvious thought was disappointment.
This was the third time that Khabib/Ferguson has had to be cancelled and it was clearly the best fight on this card on paper at least.
The next thing on everyone's lips was that Conor McGregor had supposedly predicted this. He hadn't, of course, but he had said that one of the reasons he wasn't interested in fighting Khabib was that he was a "pull-out merchant".
It's hard to disagree with that now.
So where from here? Personally, if the UFC can get Conor back in sooner rather than later - a big if admittedly - I'd just look to make a fight between him and Ferguson for the full Lightweight title, forgetting about the Interim one that would’ve been on the line here.
At the end of the day, this cancellation wasn't a luck thing, it was on Khabib, and the UFC has punished fighters who missed weight before. Khabib could find himself in another contender’s fight if this ends up being the path the UFC takes. Perhaps the winner of the upcoming Edson Barboza/Beneil Dariush match could end up facing the Dagestani.
If they can't get a deal done with Conor though, then they may as well re-book the Khabib/Ferguson Interim title fight for UFC 211 or even 210, a card which right now only has four main card bouts confirmed. It’s relatively short notice, but if Khabib can get healthy again then I don’t see why not.
After all, with Ramadan approaching – which means Khabib won’t be fighting – the window of time is relatively small to finally get the fight done.
Fourth time’s the charm maybe?