The co-main event of UFC 209 may be in jeopardy after reports have emerged on Friday that Khabib Nurmagomedov has been taken to hospital.
The story emerged from Russian publication Izvestia [via Bloody Elbow] although it has not yet been confirmed at this time.
Khabib's father and coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov was quoted by Russian media as saying that his son was taken to hospital roughly three hours before the weigh in, but refused to rule out the possibility of the fight going ahead as planned.
Yes, Khabib was taken to hospital but it happened before weigh-ins by three hours so he may be okay.
Brett Okamoto of ESPN has since reached out to Khabib's management but they declined to comment, which in itself is worrying as it would be easy to dismiss this story if there was no truth to it.
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
This would be a major blow ahead of what looked to be an extremely exciting card. Incredibly, this would be the third time that a fight between Nurmagomedov and Ferguson has been cancelled after the Russian first pulled out of the 2015 fight with a rib injury, before 'El Cucuy' withdrew from the April 2016 fight.
Fingers crossed that Khabib is cleared to fight and weighs in on time, as not only do we desperately want to see this fight between two men on long winning streaks, but also for the sake of clarity in what will become of the UFC lightweight division.
UPDATE:
We have Helwani confirmation that Khabib was taken to hospital, no word yet on the fight being called off but Khabib is running out of time to weigh in.
.@arielhelwani confirms that Khabib Nurmagomedov went to the hospital early this morning. Standby for more.
— Shaheen Al-Shatti (@shaunalshatti) March 3, 2017
It seems that Nurmagomedov fainted due to the weight cut, we'll bring you more on this as it develops.
