Brian Ortega

To date, no one has been able to defeat Khabib Nurmagomedov in a MMA fight. But, according to Brian Ortega, Tony Ferguson has an excellent shot of defeating the UFC’s lightweight champ. Not only that, “T-City” is confident he can be the first man to defeat the vaunted grappler, if Ferguson can’t.

Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson

As this is being written, the fight between Nurmagomedov and Ferguson has yet to be finalized. But, since Ferguson has won 12 straight, and because he won the interim belt during that time, it’s expected he’ll challenge Khabib next. UFC President Dana White has said that’s the plan,  and recently ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reported that the fight could happen in March.

Ortega weighs-in on the expected fight

Recently Ortega spoke with John Hyon Ko  of Kumite TV.  During the interview, Khabib vs. Ferguson came up. While discussing Ferguson’s chances of defeating the undefeated fighter, Ortega said this (quotes via The Body Lock MMA):

“They’re high, man,” Ortega said. “It’s going to happen. Tony’s an amazing athlete, he’s a great jiujitsu guard player as well.

“But when I see things, there’s just certain positions that I feel like I’m better at than certain people. And vice-versa they’re better than me in other positions. But the positions that Khabib is amazing at, I’m equally as amazing at from the bottom of the coin. I feel like if anyone is going to beat him, it’s going to be Ferguson. And if not, we’re going to have to wait until I come up.”

Ortega isn’t the only person to cite Ferguson’s guard and jiu-jitsu, as to why he’ll be a big test for Khabib. But, since this is coming from a ridiculously talented grappler and submission artist in Ortega, the comments definitely shouldn’t be dismissed (they’re also interesting as recent comments from Conor McGregor seem to indicate he doesn’t think too much of Ferguson’s guard).

And in terms of Ortega facing Khabib at some juncture? The featherweight contender also said this:

“Hopefully, Khabib doesn’t retire. Give me some time to go in there and let me do what I have to do to prove myself the way he proved himself. Let me become a champ and then I feel like I’ll have the right to really call him out and have it be a lot more serious than saying his name in interviews.”

We’ll see what happens. First things first, however, as Ortega needs to get Chan Sung Jung, who he’ll battle at UFC Busan on December 21st.

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