The biggest fight in the history of the UFC lightweight division is finally here. On April 18th, the unbeaten world champion Khabib Nurmagomedov will be putting his lightweight title on the line against the dangerous Tony Ferguson.
Ferguson is a formidable opponent. He is the winner of his 12 last fight. Ferguson is ready to challenge Nurmagomedov, who has a pefect 28-0 record including dominating wins over Rafael Dos Anjos, Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.
In Tony Ferguson, Eddie Bravo and his 10th planet got their first UFC champion. Naturally Bravo continued working with Ferguson after he was rewarded the interim belt.
Eddie Bravo recently spoke about the UFC lightweight title picture on the Joe Rogan podcast and how they are preparing Ferguson for Khabib:
“Khabib will be the toughest guy in the lightweight division for a very long time.
“Nobody is doing what he’s doing with his ground and pound, with his takedowns, with his ground control, and his smashing. He’s the best, probably of all time, really. It’s a tall order, but most people are running from Khabib when they’re on the ground,” Bravo said. “They’re spending most of their time trying to get back up, trying to drag themselves up on the fence, and he just rides them and drags them down.
“That’s a good strategy in certain situations. But we’re going to turn around and attack him,” he said. “We’re going to thank him for taking Tony down, and we’re going to throw some fire at him. It’s going to be different. No one has done that.
“I’m sure his defense is going to be tight. I’m sure he’s going to be studying rubber guard and all that, but we’re going to come there with fire,” he said. “We’re going to come right at him.”
Bravo went deeper into strategy without giving too much away:
“Tony has so many weapons. He’s wrestled all his life. He will Darce choke from all positions. He’ll Darce you from standing, on the way down. We’re preparing a lot of landmines for Khabib.”
Ferguson is a 10th planet Jiu-Jitsu under Bravo, who gave him his very own black belt when he promoted him two years ago. Bravo told the Jiu-Jitsu Times:
“When I got back from Abu Dhabi in 2003, I was a brown belt, and the first day back to class Jean Jacques gave me the black belt around his waist. So, I thought everything lined up perfectly for this. I was thinking about giving him his black belt before the fight [Tony’s UFC 216 Lightweight Interim Championship fight against Kevin Lee] you know, but I thought, ‘You know what? Let’s just see how this fight plays out…but um, he’s been ready for his black for a while. It’s been overdue, but this was just the perfect time because, I got back from Brazil off a big triangle win over Royler [Gracie], and then he got back from Vegas with a big triangle win to get the belt, so it was just perfect.”
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