"I felt certain gratitude towards the guy" - Khabib Nurmagomedov felt he had a peculiar debt to Tony Ferguson
In his autobiography Khabib Time, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed that he felt he owed a strange kind of debt to longtime rival Tony Ferguson. In a snippet from his autobiography, Nurmagomedov states that his desire to fight Ferguson and to punch him in the head motivated him to recover from three severe injuries in his career.
Khabib Nurmagomedov mentioned that had the desire to humble Ferguson not been there, he would have probably quit MMA much sooner than he did due to the career-threatening injuries he suffered along the way. Nurmagomedov referred to Ferguson as a 'poorly brought up dude' and compared him to the bullies he encountered during his teenage years in Makhachkala.
"Sometimes I felt certain gratitude towards that guy. I have already written that my desire to return after three severe injuries and having almost decided to end my career was ignited because of my overwhelming impulse to meet El Cucuy and punch him on the head so that he would look at life differently."
"That was the way it was. The possibility of finally silencing this poorly brought up dude became one of the main reasons for me returning to the cage. I have a set of emotions towards this guy that would flood me in the streets of Makhachkala at the age of sixteen or twenty, when I saw in front of me an impudent lout who was boasting how strong he was."
"I had never missed an opportunity to thrash such a smarta** and at the same time to check which of his claims about his abilities was true. So I looked at Ferguson and continue to do so with eyes full of sarcasm and anger. I assure you that my attitude promised no good for Tony." , said Nurmagomedov in his autobiography.
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson: The story of an ill-fated matchup
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson despise each other, and their rivalry is clearly personal. Ferguson was also the only guy who fans and analysts pegged as possibly being the most formidable challenge of Nurmagomedov's perfect career. However, this was one dream fight that never came to fruition despite being booked five times in the past.
From injuries to pandemic-related travel restrictions, the fight would always get canceled for some reason or another. Now that Khabib Nurmagomedov is retired, fans have finally accepted that the fight will never come to fruition.
However, the animosity between 'El Cucuy' and Khabib Nurmagomedov remains, as was evident from Ferguson's comments at a press conference ahead of UFC 262.