A highly anticipated interim lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson that was set to go down this Saturday at UFC 209 is at risk of cancellation after Nurmagomedov was reportedly taken to the hospital three hours before morning weigh-ins were set to take place. Russian newspaperIzvestia was the first to report the news, which MMA journalists on site in Las Vegas are scrambling to confirm or deny. Unfortunately, it looks more confirmed than unconfirmed, with the only question being how serious Khabib’s condition is and whether it will stop his fight with Tony Ferguson from happening.
Russian media reporting Khabib was taken to hospital three hours before the weigh-ins. Izvestia reported news after speaking to his father
— Karim Zidan 🕊️ (@ZidanSports) March 3, 2017
Reached out to Nurmagomedov's manager just now. He declined to comment on this report. https://t.co/nR8lcdZqWa
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) March 3, 2017
In report, Khabib's father mentioned that his son "may be ok" because he was taken to hospital hours ago.Explains silence from Khabib's team
— Karim Zidan 🕊️ (@ZidanSports) March 3, 2017
Interestingly enough, his opponent Tony Ferguson made several jabs at Khabib leading up to the fight claiming the Russian fighter should just concentrate on his weight cut and implying he wouldn’t be able to make weight. At the time, it just sounded like the standard pre-fight smack talk (which has been pretty relentless between the two), but now we’re wondering if Tony had some inside information about Khabib’s weight coming into UFC 209 fight week.
Fighters have fallen out of match ups due to bad weight cuts many times in the past. Sometimes they dehydrate themselves to the point where their blood pressure gets dangerously high. Other times they pass out and hurt themselves. Bodies shut down in different ways, causing vomiting or kidney stones or any number of other terrible symptoms. Who knows what Khabib may be suffering from that prompted a hospital visit but we’ll keep you up to date as this story develops. Fingers cross Khabib is okay and still manages to fight on Saturday.
