The five stages of grief after losing Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov again, in Nurmagomedov gifs

The MMA gods giveth, the MMA gods taketh away.

In news that seemed too MMA-ish to be believed, we found out late this Sunday that we’d lost a matchup between Tony Ferguson (23-3 MMA, 13-1 UFC) and Khabib Nurmagomedov (25-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC).

Again.

Four a fourth time.

On April frigging Fool’s.

Sure, there is a lot of solace to be taken in the fact that featherweight champion Max Holloway (19-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) immediately stepped up to meet Nurmagomedov in the headliner of UFC 223 and now has a chance to become a two-division UFC champ. And congrats to the ever-game champ for taking on the undefeated Boogey Man of a heavier division on (extremely) short-notice, but…

Four times, man? Why toy with our hearts like this?

We get your pain, everyone. We really do. So in order to help the MMA community heal and move on to what is also an awesome matchup, we decided to conjure a powerful internet force – the Nurmagomedov gif – to walk us through the grieving process.

Denial

This is April Fool’s, right? There’s no way it’s serious. What? There’s confirmation video from UFC President Dana White? Whatever, maybe it’s just a super elaborate prank. Maybe the camps are in on it. Hell, maybe even the media is in on it! A fourth time? Today, of all days? No way. Not today, Satan. Carry on, everyone.

Anger

Oh no. It’s serious. How is this even possible? We’ve lost them in 2015. We’ve lost them in 2016. We’ve lost them in 2017. Now 2018? WE CURSE YOU, MERCILESS MMA GODS. THIS IS THE LAST TIME WE BELIEVE YOU AND YOUR EMPTY PROMISES.

Bargaining

OK, sorry we got a little carried away here. But you must understand our frustration. Let’s just all chill and be reasonable here. There must be something we can do. Right? I mean … what if we promise to never repeat a tiramisu-related joke ever again? We’ll also learn to appreciate Ferguson’s peculiar use of intermittent capital letters. And hey, we do realize we tempted you by joking the fight had fallen through before it had. … We’ll cut it out, we swear.

Please? Pretty please?

Depression

I guess it’s time to break out that Sarah McLachlan I’ve been saving up for a special occasion and hit the grocery store for a tub of ice cream. Does Ben & Jerry’s make them tiramisu-flavored?

Acceptance

You know what? This isn’t so bad. We did get a Holloway fight out of it. Not only that, we get to watch him try to take a second UFC belt. This is actually an amazing stylistic pairing between some of the best fighters in the world. And hey, the longest combined winning streak for a single matchup in UFC history? We can roll with that.

For more on UFC 223, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly seriously, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.