Will Winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson be The Greatest LW Ever? Chael Sonnen Weighs-in

Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson are booked for battle, in what many have argued on paper, has the makings of the greatest lightweight fight to date. But, will the winner be the greatest lightweight of all time? Recently Chael Sonnen weighed-in on that very question.

Greatest lightweight ever?

After weeks of speculation as to if and when Nurmagomedov and Ferguson will fight, not long ago, the UFC announced the title bout will go down on April 18th in Brooklyn. Since the fight will feature the undefeated champion in Nurmagomedov, against Ferguson and his 12 fight winning streak, there’s no shortage of buzz tied to the bout.

Recently Sonnen spoke with Drake Riggs, and while discussing whether the winner of Khabib – Tony will be the greatest 155’er to date, he said this (quote via MMA Mania):

“It’s very hard to say that [the winner] wouldn’t be,” Sonnen said. “Khabib probably has that claim already, particularly if you narrow it down to lightweight. If you were to just say the greatest ever, Khabib still has an argument, but I don’t know if he would win it. When you’re 28-0 in any division, you claim that division, particularly when you’re the world champion, and he already got some heavy lifting out of the way on the way to the title. You go back and look at the names he beat… 10-8 rounds against guys. Two or three 10-8 rounds against [Edson] Barboza, just as an example. I mean, this guy is a hammer.”

“But you are talking about Tony Ferguson,” Sonnen continued. “That’s whole ‘nother animal. He’ll attack you from the back, he’ll attack you on the walkout. You don’t know what Tony Ferguson’s going to do. I would never count him out. I think that your math is right. Whoever wins that fight is the best ever.”

Hard to argue with that right?

Ya. It is hard to say that the winner won’t be the best lightweight to date. After all, most people would already say that about Khabib. The galaxy-class grappler has won all 28 of his pro bouts to date, and he’s dominated nearly all of the opponents he’s faced.

So, if Ferguson can become the first person to defeat Khabib, it would be difficult to say “El Cucuy” isn’t the greatest lightweight right? Especially when you consider he’s also defeated fighters like Donald Cerrone, Kevin Lee, Anthony Pettis and Barboza. In other words, in Ferguson, it’s not like we’re talking about someone who has won, say, three straight and was fortunate to move into a title shot. The guy hasn’t lost a fight since 2011.