Khabib Nurmagomedov blows out his knee, scraps fight with Cowboy Cerrone (UPDATE)
Khabib Nurmagomedov signed to fight Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone for a fight at UFC 178 and 20 minutes later the Dagestani fighter 'blew his knee out' according to UFC president Dana White.
It took the UFC less 24 hours to offer and sign the fight following Cerrone's head kick knockout win over Jim Miller at UFC Fight Night in Atlantic City, but then disaster struck just after bout agreements were returned.
White stated on Friday at a media event in Dublin, Ireland that just after receiving contracts back from the two fighters, Nurmagomedov went to the gym and immediately blew out his knee.
"That was made, it's done -- 20 minutes later (Khabib) went into the gym and blew his knee out," White said. "20 f--king minutes later."
White couldn't speculate on the severity of Nurmagomedov's injury, but stated he will be out for a while, which means Cerrone will shift to another fight against a different opponent although there have been no discussions yet following the unfortunate injury that scrapped the original fight.
Nurmagomedov has gone undefeated since coming to the UFC and it appeared he was potentially a fight away from competing for the lightweight title, but now with this latest injury there's no telling how long he will be out of action or where the division will be when he returns.
As for Cerrone, he will get booked for another fight once matchmakers find a worthy opponent and the possibility still remains that he could compete on the UFC 178 card, which takes place on September 27 in Las Vegas.
UPDATE:
FOX Sports was able to reach out and speak to Nurmagomedov's manager, Mike Constantino of MVC Sports Management to further clarify the extent of the injury suffered by the Dagestan fighter that forced him out of the bout with Cerrone.
According to Constantino, Nurmagomodov injured his knee in training severely enough to pull him from the fight, but the full extent of the damage is still unknown at this time. The plan is for Nurmagomedov to fly to Moscow, Russia this weekend and have an MRI done on Monday or Tuesday next week and at that point they'll know the final diagnosis of what went wrong with his knee.
