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27 Dec, 2019 15:13

Chael Sonnen on Khabib vs Ferguson at UFC 249: 'I really like Tony's chances' (VIDEO)

Former UFC star-turned-pundit extraordinaire Chael Sonnen said the upcoming battle for the UFC lightweight title is a tough one to call, but he believes Tony Ferguson has a fighting chance of victory against Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Khabib and Ferguson are set to meet in the main event of UFC 249 in Brooklyn, New York on April 18, and chatting to RT Sport backstage at his Submission Underground event, Sonnen said whoever takes the win could justifiably be called the greatest lightweight of all time.

"It's very hard to say that it wouldn't be, right?" he said.

"Khabib probably has that claim already, particularly if you narrow it down to lightweight. If you were just to say 'the greatest ever' Khabib still has an argument, but I don't know that he would win it.

"When you're 28-0 in any division, you claim that division, particularly when you are the world champion. And he already got some heavy lifting out of the way on the way to the title. You go back and look at the names he beat. 10-8 rounds against guys. Two or three 10-8 rounds against Barboza, just by example – this guy is a hammer.

"But you are talking about Tony Ferguson – that's a whole other animal. He'll attack you from the back, he'll attack you on the walkout, you don't know what Tony Ferguson's going to do. I would never count him out. Whoever wins that fight is the best ever."

Also on rt.com ‘Get on the podium, raise the Russian flag’ – Khabib speaks on Russia’s WADA ban (VIDEO)

But while Sonnen was gushing in his praise for "The Eagle", he couldn't quite bring himself to predict victory for the Russian world champion at UFC 249, as he admitted a slight bias towards his former training partner Ferguson ahead of the fight.

"You know, it’s very hard to pick against Khabib with what you’ve seen and I must also share with you I have a bias towards Tony because we are former teammates," he explained.

"I do really like Tony’s chances going into this, and I like them more and more as the fight gets closer."

Watch the full interview with Sonnen via the video player above.

Also on rt.com 'I'm going to hit him especially hard': Khabib Nurmagomedov plans on making up for lost time against Tony Ferguson (VIDEO)

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