LAS VEGAS – Tony Ferguson would love the opportunity to coach “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series against a former UFC rival.
Ferguson (25-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC), who won Season 13 of “TUF” in 2011, is eager to serve as a coach for the long-running series if it’s opposite Khabib Nurmagomedov. “El Cucuy” and Nurmagomedov were booked to fight five times in the UFC, but every scheduled bout ended up canceled for one reason or another.
“With ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ it was always going to be against Khabib,” Ferguson told MMA Junkie at a media event for Tuesday’s ‘TUF 33’ season debut. “That’s the only person I want to coach against.”
Ferguson, 41, insists there’s no longer any bad blood between him and Nurmagomedov, 36. While he knows Nurmagomedov promised his late father that he won’t fight again, Ferguson is open to settle things in a grappling match.
“I’m the only person his dad said, before he passed away, that this is the fight to make,” Ferguson said. “Now, regardless if it’s a fight, grappling, or anything, I know that he does keep his dad’s word, and I know that I never talked about his religion, his wife, or anybody else that goes about it. But I know competition wise, we keep it cordial. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to coach against each other at ‘The Ultimate Fighter.'”
Ferguson was scheduled to face Dillon Danis (2-0) in a lightweight bout under the GFL banner this past weekend at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, but the event was canceled several weeks ago. The former interim UFC lightweight champion is still interested in fighting Danis and is absolutely not closing the door on fighting despite losing a UFC record eight bouts in a row dating back to May 2020.
“I think any person who goes against what their inner will says, I say f*ck that,” Ferguson said. “I think more than anything else, I’m getting more and more deadly. I stopped lifting weights hugely, I’m getting more flexible, my conditioning is getting better because of the fighters that I’m training.”
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