Top-five ranked lightweight Edson Barboza says a rumored bout between he and Khabib Nurmagomedov is set for December 30th.
At a Q&A event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, third-ranked UFC lightweight Edson Barboza announced that he would be facing Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 219 (per Guilherme Cruz of MMAFighting). The news was quickly confirmed by the UFC according to Brett Okomoto of ESPN.
A week prior to the official announcement Barboza had claimed on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani that he had been offered a fight with ‘The Eagle.’ At that time the Brazilian stated he had accepted the fight and that he was just waiting on the Dagestani to agree.
With the fight seemingly official, it will be added to the UFC’s December 30th show, which is slated to be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. Also on that card is a bantamweight fight between Dominick Cruz and Jimmie Rivera and the return of Carlos Condit, who takes on Neil Magny in the welterweight division.
Barboza is currently on a three fight win streak that extended his overall record to 19-4. His last fight was against Beneil Dariush at UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Gastelum in March, winning that contest via KO (knee). Prior to that, he defeated former Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez and former UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis. Barboza’s last loss was in 2015 against interim 155lb champion Tony Ferguson.
Nurmagomedov has not fought since November 2016 - when he defeated Michael Johnson via submission at the historic UFC 205 in New York’s Madison Square Garden. The undefeated Nurmagomedov was scheduled to fight Tony Ferguson at UFC 209 in March but a disastrous weight cut forced him from the card a day before the fight.
Ferguson and Nurmagomedov had been matched-up twice prior to this with injuries on both sides preventing the actual bout from ever materializing.
If Barboza is able to get past the second-ranked Nurmagomedov, he will put himself in prime position for a rematch against Ferguson. He would also put himself a step closer to the all-important Conor McGregor sweepstakes, should the Irishman ever return to the UFC’s 155lb division.
