On Monday, UFC broadcast partner ESPN cited Dana White in reporting that the promotion is targeting a planned April 18 pay-per-view card in Brooklyn to book a highly anticipated title fight between lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.
Not long after, Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, posted a photo on Instagram of a purported signed bout agreement by the champ.
As for Ferguson, we heard nothing from him directly. But when MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn reached out to his management group, he was told both parties are “in late stages of negotiations.” Now, that could mean just about anything, but one thing was looking likely: One side wanted to put pressure on the other.
You see where this is going?
Fast forward to Tuesday evening, nearly 24 hours after the news put out there by White and Abdelaziz, and we finally heard from Ferguson himself on Twitter.
No more games. I’m open for business. Time to give the fans what they want 🕶 Champ Shit Only™️ 🇺🇸🏆🇲🇽 @danawhite @ballengeegroupmma # makeufcgreatagain
You read that? “No more games. I’m open for business.” That might tell us all we need to know about how these negotiations are going:
Who’s playing games and why?
There’s no question we want to see this fight finally happen after four previously failed attempts. We need to see this fight happen. So here’s hoping the games – whatever they might be – stop, everybody gets what they want, and this thing gets finalized.
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.
