Michael Chiesa reveals the “version” of Tony Ferguson he thinks would’ve beaten Khabib Nurmagomedov

Michael Chiesa thinks the version of Tony Ferguson that beat Rafael dos Anjos would’ve beaten Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov was one of the biggest fights that never came to fruition. It was booked on multiple occasions, but the pair never ended up meeting in the Octagon for a variety of reasons. According to Chiesa, he thinks had Ferguson and Nurmagomedov fought after ‘El Cucuy’ beat dos Anjos, he thinks Ferguson could’ve won.

“I will admit like going back and watching some of his recent fights, I wouldn’t say gave me a false sense of security but I was definitely like this isn’t the film to watch, I’m going to go back and watch the film that I was watching to prepare for him in 2016. I watched that Rafael Dos Anjos fight a lot because I feel like that version of Tony Ferguson that we saw in the Octagon against Rafael Dos Anjos, I feel like he could have beat anybody in the world,” Chiesa said to BJPENN.com.

“I mean, I will go out on a limb and say I think that he could have beaten Khabib Nurmagomedov if that was the version of him. I think that was his peak. His peak was RDA and the descent, even though he still won fights from there, I still think it started to go down a little bit. That style comes at a price, it comes at a severe price,” Chiesa added.

It’s an interesting comment from Michael Chiesa, but he does make a good point, that the Tony Ferguson who beat Rafael dos Anjos looked unbeatable. But unfortunately, we can only guess as to how that bout would have played out.

As for Chiesa, he is coming off a first-round submission win over Tony Ferguson earlier this month at UFC Abu Dhabi. That win snapped his losing streak, while it marked the eighth-straight loss for Ferguson.