UFC: Conor McGregor predicts Khabib beats Tony Ferguson – ‘he gets dropped, his guard’s been passed’
- The Irishman favours Nurmagomedov for expected UFC lightweight title bout
- ‘He’s [Ferguson] been mounted by a lesser fighter’
Conor McGregor has predicted Khabib Nurmagomedov will beat Tony Ferguson in their soon-to-be scheduled UFC lightweight title fight.
The unbeaten Nurmagomedov (professional MMA record 28-0) is set to defend his belt against Ferguson in the first quarter of next year having eased to a third-round submission win over Dustin Poirier in September.
The 31-year-old Dagestani defeated McGregor in 2018, humbling the Irishman in the promotion’s highest grossing pay-per-view event. McGregor (21-4) has not fought since.
Ferguson (25-3) is on a 12-fight win streak with wins over contenders Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, and Kevin Lee. The 35-year-old’s bout with Nurmagomedov has been cancelled four times in the past for various reasons, including weight cut issues and injuries.
“It'll be an interesting one, I think Khabib would probably beat him,” McGregor said at a recent press conference in Ukraine. “He does go down. He does get dropped. His guard has been passed. He's been mounted by a lesser fighter. So I would favour Khabib in that bout.”