MMA fans felt a painful—albeit familiar—twinge when Khabib Nurmagomedov announced earlier this week that he will withdraw from his December 11 lightweight bout with Tony Ferguson.
It's hard to replace an athlete as talented and exciting as the Dagestani, but credit to UFC officials: They found the next best thing in Brazilian super striker Edson Barboza. The news came Friday afternoon from Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting.
Even with the replacement, the bout, taking place at the finale show of The Ultimate Fighter 22, will carry very real implications for the top of the UFC's 155-pound division.
Ferguson, 31, has won six straight. His combination of striking and wrestling seems to become more potent every time he fights, and it has netted him four stoppages and three performance bonuses in his last six contests.
MMA fans have long clamored for Ferguson to become a bona fide title contender, and a win over Barboza should cement him there.
To notch that win, Ferguson will have to defeat perhaps the best striker in the entire division. Barboza has a mind-bending arsenal of kicks and combinations, as well as some serious takedown defense and nice jiu-jitsu to back it up. Barboza has won four of his last six, with this losses coming to Michael Johnson and Donald Cerrone.
Most recently, Barboza won a shootout with Paul Felder that notched both men Fight of the Night honors at UFC on Fox 16 in June.
Barboza is currently listed at No. 6 on the official UFC lightweight rankings. Ferguson appears at No. 8, though some might argue that's a little low given his winning streak.
Meanwhile, the bad news keeps coming for Nurmagomedov and his fans. The 27-year-old is undefeated at 22-0 and is the only person in the past four years to defeat current champion Rafael dos Anjos. A win over Ferguson would almost surely have secured a title shot for Nurmagomedov.
That win over dos Anjos also is noteworthy, however, because it was the last time Nurmagomedov was able to compete. That was April 2014. Knee injuries and, in the case of his date with Ferguson, a rib injury have conspired to keep him on the sidelines.
Now, it appears Ferguson or Barboza may be poised to leapfrog the Dagestani phenom in the rankings, and he could get to a title shot sooner rather than later. There's a lot of reward waiting for the man who can take care of business on December 11.
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