![]() ![]() Iaquinta immediately looks to stand up but Khabib takes the back. Khabib shoots but doesn’t come close to a takedown. Iaquinta moves in looking to land a big punch. The crowd loudly chants for Khabib despite the fight taking place in Iaquinta’s backyard. Al Iaquinta is an eccentric striker with an unlikely opportunity to catapult himself to the top of his division. He is finally getting his chance to hold UFC gold. ![]() Khabib Nurmagomedov is an undefeated Russian competitor with a ferocious ground game. Also on the main card will be Brazil’s Renato Moicano (11-1-1) fighting American Calvin Kattar (18-2-0). Namajunas scored a massive upset over Jedrzejczyk to win the title. Poland’s Joanna Jedrzejczyk (14-1) will take on Colorado’s Rose Namajunas (8-3) for the women’s strawweight title in the co-main event. ![]() After a mad scramble, Iaquinta was then chosen as the new opponent shortly before the ceremonial weigh-ins. UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway agreed to step in on one week’s notice but he was declared medically unfit to compete yesterday. Nurmagomedov was originally supposed to face Tony Ferguson, but Ferguson was forced to pull out after tripping on a cord while doing a media appearance last week. Those two will battle for the lightweight title vacated by Conor McGregor, who is now facing criminal charges from his rampage on Thursday. Nurmagomedov, though, hasn’t done so yet and isn’t showing any signs of it.Following what was likely the most chaotic week in UFC history, Russia’s Khabib Nurmagomedov (25-0) will face Long Island’s Al Iaquinta (13-3-1) in the UFC 223 main event on Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Nurmagomedov handled the changes with no issues, raising his record to 26-0 in a sport in which virtually everyone loses. He wasn’t going to be fighting McGregor, because there were signs all over the Barclays Center reminding workers that McGregor and several of his friends were not welcome inside the arena.įerguson was supposed to have been fighting Nurmagomedov, but he injured his knee when he tripped over a television cable while on the Fox set and was pulled from the bout due to a torn LCL on Sunday. “Give me 30 minutes and I’ll come back with anybody,” he said “Tony, Conor, it doesn’t matter.” ![]() He did his usual trash-talking during the fight, and didn’t let up when it was over. He used a hard jab to bloody Iaquinta’s nose and control the fight. He was in such command that even when the fight went for long stretches standing, he was in control. “Give me Georges St-Pierre at Madison Square Garden,” he said in the cage after the fight. He went out and did his thing, mauling Iaquinta to win the lightweight championship that was stripped from McGregor because of inactivity.Īnd when it was over, he showed he’s not fishing for the small fries. It was the expected end to a crazy week that saw McGregor, the sport’s marquee fighter, arrested, multiple changes in the main event and several other fights falling off the card because of McGregor’s idiotic rampage on Thursday.īut if Nurmagomedov was bothered, he hardly showed it. Despite the wide loss, it was a clear moral victory for Iaquinta, who had trained for a three-round non-title bout against Paul Felder and didn’t find out he was going to be facing the division’s best grappler until early afternoon on Friday. ![]()
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