MMA fans are still coming to terms with the last minute cancellation of one of the most interesting lightweight fights in a very long time after the hospitalisation and subsequent withdrawal of Khabib Nurmagomedov from the co-main event of UFC 209.
While Michael Johnson was ready and willing to step in as a replacement, Tony Ferguson would have been crazy to accept the fight considering it wasn't for the interim title and was for less pay, so instead a Fight Pass prelim in Rashad Evans vs Daniel Kelly has been promoted to the main card and David Teymur vs Lando Vannata has been bumped up to the co-main event.
Speaking to UFC on Fox today [via MMAFighting.com], Dana White confirmed that Khabib will be fine after his weight cut complications, but also suggested that the Russian fighter's team of coaches were in part to blame for the fight being scrapped.
White suggested that Khabib's team acted of their own accord without consulting the UFC, and if they had done so there would have been a better chance of saving the fight.
Basically, his team had decided to take him to just some random hospital here in Las Vegas instead of picking up the phone and calling our doctor and calling Brianna [Mattison], who runs all the medicals. They went rogue and went out and did their own thing. Had they done this thing the right way, the fight probably could have been saved.
White then discussed the health of Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Having seen him at the open workouts just a day prior to the official weigh-in, things looked to be going according to plan although Tony Ferguson could be heard making a comment about the difficulty of Khabib's cut.
It seems, however, that when Nurmagomedov got to within six pounds of the needed weight he started to have complications.
It’s never good. If you’re doing it and things are going bad, it’s bad on your kidneys, it’s bad on your liver. It’s just bad all the way around. He’s doing better now. Obviously, he’s OK. He’s gonna be fine. But yeah. It’s never good.
Dana also revealed that the UFC have not yet considered where to go from here. With Ferguson not taking a replacement fight, and hopefully with Khabib not too far away from a recovery there's a chance that we could see the fight in the near future, but focus is firmly on what remains of UFC 209 for now.
The show must go on, and we do have a rematch between Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson to look forward too, but judging by the reaction of the fans and media, it's clear what the people's main event of UFC 209 was.
