UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov said fellow fighter Tony Ferguson has "missed his chance" by snubbing the opportunity to face Max Holloway for the interim title.
"Tony you had your chance and you missed it, and that’s your fault only. You know that I’m disqualified and can’t fight, but it’s not fair to strip me off the title, I fought 3 times in 9 months. I won and defended my belt," Nurmagomedov said.
"As a fighter you deserve a title fight, you are great fighter and opponent, but now you have to fight or wait for my DQ to be over and fight(but UFC doesn’t want it). I don’t understand your offenses, if you fell down, you got to get up, not complain," RT cited him as saying.
Ferguson is said to have passed up the chance to face featherweight king Holloway for the interim lightweight bout while reigning champion Nurmagomedov sits out a nine-month suspension over the UFC 229 fracas.
With 'El Cucuy' ruling himself out, the UFC announced that Holloway would instead meet fellow US fighter Dustin Poirier in the UFC 236 headliner on April 13 in Atlanta, with the winner likely earning a shot at Nurmagomedov.
