Archives: Khabib Nurmagomedov Offered Tony Ferguson $200K To Fight

On this day, five years ago, the MMA world was waiting for Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson.

Nurmagomedov screamed at UFC President Dana White and offered Ferguson $200,000 out of his own pocket to make the fight happen. It was eventually scheduled as an interim lightweight championship fight at UFC 209, but Nurmagomedov had to withdraw due to weight-cutting issues.

Hey @TonyFergusonXT if the @ufc don’t want to pay you I’ll pay you 200k extra on your purse let’s make this fight now you have no excuse

— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) January 2, 2017

The UFC tried to make this fight happen five times.

The last time they were supposed to fight was during the pandemic period in 2020, but Nurmagomedov could not travel to the U.S. from Russia because of Covid-19 regulations.

Ferguson ended up fighting with Justin Gaethje in May 2020 and suffered a brutal defeat against the striker.

After that loss, the hype around Ferguson slowly disintegrated. In 2020, Nurmagomedov announced retirement with an undefeated record of 29-0.