Eddie Bravo knows Khabib Nurmagomedov is a dangerous opponent but believes Tony Ferguson has too many weapons for the champion.
Bravo says he and Ferguson have been preparing for Nurmagomedov for quite awhile.
“We’ve been preparing for Khabib for a long time,” Bravo said on The Joe Rogan Experience (via MMAJunkie). “… We’re always preparing for the worst-case scenario, and Khabib is the worst-case scenario. He’s probably the best ground-and-pounder wrestler ever. This is the toughest challenge ever in MMA for 10th Planet.”
Although Nurmagomedov is a sizeable favorite, Bravo thinks Ferguson will have success in the fight as they point to other Nurmagomedov bouts as evidence.
“The thing with Khabib, Khabib is undefeated – no doubt one of the best fighters of all time,” Bravo said. “But you’ve got to remember this, too: There are a couple of Khabib fights – we’ve watched all the Khabib fights – where you don’t see the classic Khabib. Like Gleison Tibau – that didn’t go down like (people expected). There are some fights Khabib (looks human).
“You can also look at the (Rafael) dos Anjos fight – there are things he couldn’t do that he could do with other people. He couldn’t get past dos Anjos’ guard. (He) wasn’t that easy to take down.”
In the end, Eddie Bravo knows Tony Ferguson will have too many weapons for Nurmagomedov as his wrestling and jiu-jitsu will cause problems.
“Tony wrestled his whole (expletive) life,” Bravo said. “There’s a light year difference between Conor’s wrestling and Tony’s wrestling, so you’ve got that. Tony will throw D’Arce (chokes) standing and from all different angles, and while you’re trying to take him down. So Khabib’s got to worry about that.
“Khabib has my respect a million percent – that guy’s insane. But Tony has so many (expletive) weapons. He might have more weapons than anyone in the history of the UFC.”
