5 UFC Lightweights: UFC News:‘The Eagle’ Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated Al Iaquinta at UFC 223 in 2018 to win the lightweight world championship without a challenge. Five years ago, Khabib Nurmagomedov, the UFC’s undefeated and undisputed lightweight champion, won the championship by outlasting Al Iaquinta in the main event of UFC 223. Follow Boxing News Updates with InsideSports.IN.
Conor McGregor’s lightweight championship was revoked, and the 155-pound belt was left vacant for a considerable amount of time. Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was already on a nine-fight winning streak, chose to compete for the title despite having no opponents available.
Initially, Tony Ferguson was given the opportunity to compete but was unable to make the weight; a few days later, former featherweight champion Max Holloway suffered a similar fate. Al Iaquinta, who had accepted to challenge Khabib Nurmagomedov for the vacant UFC championship, turned things around and salvaged the day for the sport’s supporters.
Lightweights Khabib Nurmagomedov Never Fought: Most Anticipated 5 UFC Fights
But there are certain fights that Khabib Nurmagomedov was supposed to fight, but it could never take place much to the UFC fans dismay, lets look at the five most anticipated fights of Khabib that never took place:
- Khabib vs Tony Ferguson– Fans had to let go of the idea that Khabib vs Tony Ferguson fight would even take place ever inside the octagon. Ferguson had to fight with Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 as Nurmagomedov had to pull out of the fight due to pandemic related restrictions. This fight wasnt cancelled for the first time, but was the fifth time.
The first time Khabib vs Ferguson was cancelled was during the TUF 22 Finale in 2015, as three months prior to the finale, Khabib had injured his rib turing his training. With Khabib out of the fixture Ferguson fought with Edson Barboza.
The second time their fight was cancelled was in UFC on FOX 19 on April 16th 2016, after Ferguson’s win over Barboza UFC decided to match the opponents again for the second time, the winner of the bout would be moving towards competing for the lightweight championship, but just 11 days before the scheduled fight Ferguson was forced to withdraw from the bout due to presence of blood and fluids in his lungs.
5 UFC Lightweights Khabib Nurmagomedov Never Fought
UFC 209 on 4th March, 2017 UFC opted to choose different opponents for the two fighters, during the time Conor had taken a break to celebrate the birth of his first child and spent most of the year preparing to fight Floyd Mayweather. It was then, UFC opted to schedule the two fighters together again for an interim lightweight title on line. But this too couldn’t happen as just 24 hours before the co- main event fight Khabib had to be rushed to the hospital, due tobrutal weight cut. Though Khabib was soon discharged but he couldn’t participate in the fight.
During UFC 223 on April 7th, 2018 UFC scheduled the two fighters to face off again, and declared that who ever would win the fight would be declared the undisputed lightweight champion as Conor was still in the sideline and the title had been vacant for a long time but just six days prior to the fight Ferguson was forced to pull out of the fight due to a knee injury, which then led Nurmagomedov to eventually face AL Iaquinta.
- Khabib vs Conor McGregor: Rematch with former UFC two-division Conor McGregor is the second bout on this list of Khabib Nurmagomedov matches that never transpired. In the fourth round of UFC 229, Khabib used a rear-naked choke to finish off McGregor. Nevertheless, what happened after the fight overshadowed Nurmagomedov’s outstanding performance.
5 UFC Lightweights Khabib Nurmagomedov Never Fought
Immediately after attacking McGregor’s teammates, Nurmagomedov leaped over the cage, and a fight broke out between the two corners. A rematch between Khabib and McGregor would have been the biggest in UFC history given what happened at UFC 229. Both guys continued their trash talking on social media, proving they weren’t ready to let the past go.
- Khabib vs harles Oliveira: Another battle between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira that was scheduled but never took place. The argument over who is a stronger grappler might have been settled by the current and previous UFC lightweight champions.
It would be interesting to see Oliveira take on Nurmagomedov. The two fighters’ expert grappling would keep things interesting. Nurmagomedov almost avoided a guillotine choke during his title defence against Dustin Poirier. Oliveira might have been able to defeat Khabib for the first time in his professional career if he had been in that spot.
- Khabib vs Beneil Dariush: Beneil Dariush had always wanted to spar with the UFC lightweight legend. But with Khabib’s sudden retirement from MMA and UFC made the wish like an everlasting dream for Dariush.
- Khabib vs Michael Chandler– As a multiple-time Bellator Lightweight Champion, Chandler entered the UFC. For him, the possibilities in his new company were endless.
He has consistently asserted that he can compete with opponents like Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Furthermore, ‘Iron’ is convinced that, thanks to his extensive armament, he is the kryptonite that ‘The Eagle’ has never possessed.
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