- Eddie Bravo promises to 'pull Khabib into uncharted territory' in UFC 249 title fight
- 'All you need to know is D'arces and elbows. Those D'arces are coming from everywhere'
Tony Ferguson has a masterplan to beat Khabib Nurmagomedov " and it involves lots of D'arce chokes and elbows, according to his jiu-jitsu coach.
Eddie Bravo revealed some of Ferguson's tactics for the huge UFC 249 lightweight title fight in Brooklyn on April 18 during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience.
"We've been preparing for Khabib for a long time, like for the (Rafael) Dos Anjos fight we were preparing for him," Bravo said last weekend on the JRE Fight Companion during UFC Auckland. "But we are always preparing for the worst case scenario " and Khabib is the worst case scenario.
"He is probably the best ground and pound wrestler ever, right? This is the toughest challenge ever in MMA for 10th Planet, that's for sure."
Khabib is undefeated at 28-0, but just like the Russian champion, Ferguson (25-3) is riding a 12-fight win streak in the UFC.
"I'm just focusing on stuff that he's (Khabib) never seen, because if I come at him with stuff he's seen, then that's not a good strategy," Bravo added.
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"I'm gonna pull him into some uncharted territory and that's what I've been doing with Tony. The thing with Khabib is he is undefeated, no doubt one of the best fighters probably of all time, but you gotta remember there are a couple of Khabib fights where you don't see the classic Khabib.
"You also look at the Dos Anjos fight, he clearly won that but there are things he couldn't do that he could do with other people, and Tony wrestled his whole goddamn life.
"There is a light year difference between Conor's wrestling and Tony's wrestling. Then Tony will throw D'arces standing and from all different angles while you're trying to take him down. There's gonna be D'arces on the feet."
Khabib mauled former interim champion Dustin Poirier and former champ Conor McGregor on the ground during one-sided dominant displays in his last two fights.
"The advantage is that we know exactly where the fight is gonna be if Khabib is successful. There's the stand-up phase, the clinch, the fighting against the fence, the dragging, then there's the in-between the fence and dragging," Bravo said.
"We know where he wants to take the fight, and we'll set traps, all sorts of them. We've been working on this for a while. Khabib has my respect a million per cent, I mean that guy's insane, but Tony has so many goddamn weapons. He might have more weapons than anybody ever in the UFC. Khabib is not invincible.
"He's (Ferguson) on top of the latest s***, the latest training instinct, the reaction, s*** the NBA would be doing. I don't want to talk about it. All you need to know is D'arces and elbows. Those D'arces are coming from everywhere.
"This is arguably the greatest fight ever, the greatest ground and pounder … and then here comes Tony the wild enigma coming from you from a thousand different angles."
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