As Tony Ferguson kicks steel pipes, Khabib Nurmagomedov works on “Velasquez-style” wrestling and “small glove sparring”
Yesterday, we got an interesting look into Tony Ferguson’s UFC 223 training camp, as the interim lightweight champ shared a video of himself kicking a steel pipe to condition his shins. While his opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov doesn’t seem to be getting quite as – er… innovative – with his training, it looks like he’s killing it in the gym all the same.
On Wednesday afternoon, the undefeated lightweight contender shared some images from his training camp. According to these post, he’s been drilling Cain Velasquez style wrestling, and sparring in standard-size MMA gloves (rather than bag gloves).
“Today was Velasquez-style wrestling training,” Nurmagomedov said in his first post. “Thank you for teaching us today [Cain Velasquez]. [Daniel Cormier] where are you? Brother, we need you, please come back to the gym or Cain will take us to WWE.”
“When you’re preparing for a fight, small gloves sparring [is] very important,” Nurmagomedov said in his second post. “April 7 is just around the corner.”
Needless to say, Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov both seem to be putting in the hours in their own, unique ways. As Nurmagomedov says, April 7 is just around the corner, so cross your fingers, knock on wood, and with a little luck, we’ll finally see these two in the cage together very soon.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/15/2018.
