Tony Ferguson: ‘A Little Part of Me Left’ When Khabib Nurmagomedov Retired

Tony Ferguson was widely believed to the biggest potential threat to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s lightweight title reign at one point in time.

Ferguson, who won 12 consecutive UFC bouts from 2013 to 2019, was booked to fight Nurmagomedov five times — but each time the matchup fell through due to various unfortunate circumstances. The potential fight was shelved for good when Nurmagomedov retired from the sport in 2020 shortly after the death of his father.

Meanwhile, Ferguson went on a six-fight skid that began with a brutal beatdown against Justin Gaethje at UFC 249. Scheduled to fight English prospect Paddy Pimblett at UFC 296 on Dec. 16, Ferguson recently admitted during an interview on "The MMA Hour” that a part of him was forever gone with Nurmagomedov’s retirement.

“I know when Khabib left, a little part of me left with that,” Ferguson said. “It kind of sucked a little bit because we’ve always had that, I don’t want to say negative energy, but that hype that was built around that. Then when that disappeared and the pandemic hit and the f—-ing team left and then just a whole bunch there was nothing else left for me kind of. Except what I told myself is I wanted to compete. I wanted to compete enough so that way maybe possibly, win or lose, Khabib would come back.”