UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had an interesting conversation today with Khabib Nurmagomedov and shared the details on Twitter.

According to Cormier, the UFC tried to book lightweight contender Nurmagomedov opposite interim champion Tony Ferguson at UFC 219. Ferguson, however, declined (via Twitter).

So I walk into the gym today and @khabib_nurmagomedov walks up and says the @Ufc is wanting to make me vs @tonyfergusonxtfor dec 30. Then he tells me that tony is saying no to the fight. Come on Tony, that ain’t gangsta bruh. Take the fight man!!!!

Purely speculating here, but before the Cris Cyborg-Holly Holm title fight got booked last week, my guess is the UFC tossed some Hail Mary’s in hopes of booking a main-event worthy fight for the Dec. 30 pay-per-view in Las Vegas. Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov was one of those desperation inquiries, even though Nurmagomedov is already booked against Edson Barboza on the card.

And whereas Nurmagomedov was game, Ferguson wasn’t – and for good reason.

Why would Ferguson (23-3 MMA, 13-1 UFC) defend an interim belt against Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) when a potential title-unifying “money fight” with champion Conor McGregor is right in front of him? And why would Ferguson even want to fight Nurmagomedov after what happened earlier this year, with Khabib being forced out of their UFC 209 interim title fight because of a bad weight cut?

Ferguson declining the fight might not be “gangsta,” but accepting it also wouldn’t have been very smart, either.

For more on UFC 219, visit the UFC Rumors section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.

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