Javier Mendez likes to see the positive side of things.
The head coach of American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, Calif. is gearing up to help [autotag]Khabib Nurmagomedov [/autotag] make another defense of his UFC lightweight championship on April 18 in the main event of UFC 249 in the New York borough of Brooklyn.
Nurmagomedov will face Tony Ferguson, a man with whom he’s quite familiar. Both Nurmagomedov and Ferguson have been scheduled to fight four times, having matchups set for “The Ultimate Fighter” 22 Finale in 2015, UFC on FOX 19 in 2016, UFC 209 in 2017, and UFC 223 in 2018. But for every scheduled bout, injuries, weight-cutting issues, and other factors have kept the two from fighting.
“This is a first for me,” Mendez told MMA Junkie. “I’ve never had somebody that’s supposed to fight four times and all of a sudden, you know, and the way it happened too, especially the last one for Tony, man, everything was gravy and he tripped over a frickin’ wire.
“And you know, he ain’t faking nothing. That guy is a warrior, man. He ain’t faking nothing. So trust me, what happened is a freak accident. And yeah, I can definitely see why people would think this fight is cursed, never meant to be.
“And I can definitely see why people are, you know, looking at it like, ‘Well, I want to be a backup for that fight because one of them is going to get hurt,'” he continued. “Well, they have shown that it happens, right? Not like one time, it’s been four times. So I’m thinking it’s going to go through this time, you know, and I want to believe it will go through, but it has gone four times.”
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The lightweight matchup between Nurmagomedov and Ferguson has been years in the making. Each time the bout has fallen through, the fighters have gone in different directions. But momentum always brings them back together.
Since they were first booked to fight in 2015, Nurmagomedov has gone 6-0, picking up and twice defending the UFC 155-pound title. While Ferguson has also gone on a 6-0 run, which had him capture the interim lightweight title against Kevin Lee along the way before being stripped of the belt.
“They’re both on crazy win streaks, if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time a 12-0 vs. 12-0 fight in the UFC,” Mendez said. “So it has a higher meaning and rightfully so. Number one champ, number two Tony, you know. So this is the first time you have two people on the rise like this facing each other and it’s been built four or five fights previously, so this is bigger than ever.
“All you have to do is look at the sales. I think they’re sold out and now it’s the other secondary market, so if you buy tickets for this event, you’re not getting the original price. You’re getting the marked up pricing, otherwise you’re not going to get into that. You’re not getting the regular prices for this. It’s sold out, so the fans, they think that this is a great fight.
As crazy as this might sound, Mendez believes that all of this has happened for a reason.
“And you know what, it’s like things are meant to be this way,” he said. “They’re meant to be and that didn’t happen, but now it’s bigger than it’s ever been. So maybe it was meant to be that they were going to fight in a much bigger platform. And here we are.
“It’s the biggest platform for both of them, fighting each other wasn’t meant (then). This is the biggest platform ever for both of them to fight each other. And maybe it was meant to be this way, maybe it was meant to be bigger than the what it was back then. And now we are at the huge platform for both of them, So I’d just rather look on the positive side of it, you know.”
After being presented with the Ferguson challenge many times before, the preparation and approach to the fight has changed over the years. After all, both fighters have evolved greatly over that time.
“It’s changed some because Tony has gotten better, Khabib has gotten better,” Mendez explained. “So it’s not the same. Can not be the same. Look how good Tony has looked. You can’t say it’s the same, no way. And look how good Khabib has looked. We have to look at it like it’s a brand new fight. You can’t look at it as same old, same old. We know what we’re looking at. Different things have popped up since then for both of them.”
As far as the matchup itself goes, Mendez doesn’t expect Nurmagomedov to run through Ferguson like he has with previous opponents, even with all the confidence he has in his Dagestani pupil. Mendez expects a hard-fought war against Ferguson, but sees the result being the same as always – Nurmagomedov getting his hand raised.
“He’s got incredible cardio and really, really dangerous with elbows,” Mendez said. “Extremely dangerous. The most dangerous lightweight in the history of the UFC with elbows. Unorthodox, very effective unorthodox style. He’s got the heart of a lion.”
Mendez believes this will ultimately be a battle of will between two guys who are not known for breaking.
“You’re not gonna break this guy,” he said. “It’s not going to happen. He’s not going to break Khabib, neither are going to break. I don’t see that happening. I see these guys beating each other to death before they break. They’re not breaking. They’re not breaking, neither one of these guys are, so forget about that part. They’re not breaking. Now beating them down, that’s another story.
“He can beat us down and we can beat him down. My job is to have Khabib beat him down, so I have to be on that side because I can’t be another side. So we’ll beat him down and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that that happens. And that means acknowledging how dangerous these elbows are, acknowledging how dangerous his submissions are, acknowledging how dangerous he’s with his cardio, acknowledging how dangerous he is in these areas.”
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