Wrestle World - UFC champ Islam Makhachev reveals former Khabib rival was his dream fight

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev once hoped he could settle one of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s rivalries.

Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson (25-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC) saw five scheduled bouts scrapped, and the pair never ended up settling their beef that spanned several years.

Makhachev (26-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC) revealed that he wanted to step in and take the Ferguson fight himself, just because of how dominant “El Cucuy” once was during a 12-fight winning streak.

“My brother Khabib supposed to fight with Tony Ferguson like five times,” Makhachev said in an interview with Adin Ross. “They both had injuries, the fight was canceled five times, and my dream (was) to fight this guy that moment, because I always with Khabib. When Khabib have injury, I ask my manager, ‘Hey, can I step in to fight with Tony?’

“And, you know, Tony in that moment, he’s like very good athlete, very good fighter. He have almost, yeah, more than 10-fight win streak in UFC. And this is one of the fight which I want fight like three, four years ago, but not right now because he has eight-fight losing streak. Wish him the best, but a couple of years ago, he was one of the high-level fighters from our division.”

Ferguson’s career has taken a major turn. He now finds himself on a UFC record eight-fight losing skid.

Meanwhile, Makhachev will look to break the lightweight record for most title defenses when he rematches Arman Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) Jan. 18 in the UFC 311 main event from Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. The fight airs on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and ESPN+.