Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier offer to replace Khabib Nurmagomedov in Tony Ferguson fight at UFC 249
Jorge Masvidal and Dustin Poirier have offered to fight Tony Ferguson in place of Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 249.
Khabib appears set to miss the April 18 fight with the Russian stuck in his homeland due to travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Reports claim Justin Gaethje is being lined up as a replacement to face Ferguson with UFC president Dana White desperate to keep the event on.
However, Masvidal has thrown his name into the hat to take Ferguson on.
Masvidal tweeted: “April 18 I’m free #theresurrection.”
He later added: “Second time I say yes to the crotch sniffing champ, second time he has a date #theresurrection.”
Elsewhere, Poirier is also keen to fill in for Khabib.
On Twitter, he simply said: “I’ll fight.”
Last year, Poirier was beaten by Khabib in Abu Dhabi at UFC 242 when the Russian tapped him out with a rear-naked choke in the third round to extend his record to 28-0.
If Khabib vs Ferguson does not take place this month, it will be the FIFTH time the fight has been cancelled.
Despite the obvious travel restrictions for the champion, White remains adamant it will happen.
He told Frank Warren’s Heavyweight podcast: “The challenges are that every time I get something figured out, I wake up the next day and the world has completely changed again.
“Everything that I work hard on the day before, me and my crew, has now fallen apart. It literally just happened to us again today.
“I woke up today and Khabib Nurmagomedov is in Russia and they just shut down all travel in and out of Russia.
“I woke up this morning and the whole world f****** changed again.
“So back to the drawing board and we’re figuring this out right now as we’re speaking right now, I have people working on this thing as we speak.
“Listen, I am absolutely f****** relentless and I said that this fight is going to go on and it will.”