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A startled Dana White jumped when Tony Ferguson used a quiet moment at the end of a face-off with UFC 209 opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov Thursday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena to crouch down and yell.
Nurmagomedov coolly turned his head and gave Ferguson a disapproving look before walking away. Ferguson’s antics aren’t getting to Nurmagomedov anymore.
“To be honest, I don’t know about this stupid guy,” Nurmagomedov said. “He looks stupid a little bit, like nervous guy.”
Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) and Ferguson (22-3 MMA, 12-1 UFC) had found some common ground before arriving locally for their interim lightweight championship bout Saturday night on pay-per-view. That mutuality has cracked, if not outright fractured since they’ve been forced to be around each other more to promote the UFC 209 co-main event.
Consider it partially a consequence of having been linked for nearly two years. The paths of Ferguson, who’s won nine straight fights, and Nurmagomedov to the top of the UFC have run parallel with injuries twice previously rerouting an intersection when they were booked to fight.
“We’ve got beef,” Ferguson said. “We’ve got to squash this (expletive). I’m tired of it, man. He’s a bully. I’m going to shut him up.”
The UFC has based some of its fight-week operations in the bowels of the arena, which unintentionally makes it likely that fighters encounter each other outside of scheduled media activities. Ferguson said the close quarters led to an incident earlier in the week.
Ferguson and his wife, who had already been staying at New York-New York for a couple of days, went to meet one of his coaches who had just arrived. When the three went to check in with the UFC, Ferguson said members of Nurmagomedov’s team were in the office and began surrounding them as a subtle intimidation tactic.
Ferguson let it go but vowed to retaliate if he felt Nurmagomedov and his people were threatening him again.
“It’s the whole mentality they have,” Ferguson said. “This is their team. They want to try to bully us. You want to know what happens to bullies, especially when I’m involved? You’ll find out soon.”
The accusation puzzled Nurmagomedov. Ferguson said his opponent wasn’t around, but Nurmagomedov couldn’t find anyone who’s in town to support him to explain what happened.
“My camp doesn’t know nothing about this,” Nurmagomedov said. “My corners, my brothers say they don’t know what he’s talking about. Today, we watch this news but nobody understood nothing.”
Nurmagomedov seemed to rankle Ferguson the most when he suggested the fight happened because he handpicked him as an opponent instead of pursuing other opportunities. As for Nurmagomedov, it wasn’t any of Ferguson’s words that bothered him.
Nurmagomedov has just grown weary of Ferguson’s attitude.
“I don’t understand his mind,” Nurmagomedov said. “I don’t like this guy too much to be honest but we have to give him respect. This Saturday, hungry eagle is going to eat house cat.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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