When Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson was canceled twice on April Fools’ Day

Despite being a dominant force in the lightweight division during his time in the promotion, UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov never had the opportunity to face off against top contender Tony Ferguson. Although he successfully defeated multiple other contenders, the highly anticipated matchup between the two never came to fruition.

Despite the UFC’s numerous efforts to arrange a fight between the two competitors, including their initial matchup at UFC 223 where Nurmagomedov was vying for his first title, the highly anticipated battle against ‘El Cucuy’ was once again plagued by familiar issues.

Surprisingly, only a few days before UFC 223 was set to take place on April 7, Ariel Helwani announced on April 1 (April Fools’ Day) that Ferguson had suffered an injury and would not be participating in the title fight.

The report’s date caused Helwani to face skepticism from fans, with some even mistaking it for an April Fools’ prank. In response, he felt compelled to issue a clarification through a subsequent post on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Two years later, a similar situation occurred when Nurmagomedov was scheduled to defend his title against Ferguson for the third time. However, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, causing the world to come to a standstill and preventing any live events, including UFC 249, from happening.

On April Fools’ Day, Nurmagomedov used Instagram to clarify his circumstances and expressed confusion as to why fans still anticipated him to travel from Dagestan, Russia and compete, despite the current global situation.

The Cursed Fight: A History of the Failed Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson Matchups

Despite being scheduled a total of five times, the highly anticipated fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson never actually took place. Taking into consideration the reasons for the last two cancellations, let’s examine the first three instances when these two lightweights were set to compete against each other.

The UFC originally scheduled them to face each other in 2015 at the TUF 22 finale, but Nurmagomedov’s withdrawal due to a rib injury greatly hindered his progress. At the time, ‘The Eagle’ held a ranking of No. 3, while Ferguson was ranked No. 8. However, it would be three more years before Nurmagomedov would finally compete for the title.

The two were set to face off again at UFC on FOX 19, but Ferguson had to withdraw due to a lung problem. In 2017, the fight was rescheduled for UFC 209. Unfortunately, Nurmagomedov became sick from a botched weight cut and the match had to be called off.