Tony Ferguson responds to Khabib Nurmagomedov's taunts: 'You can't box for (expletive)'

While an actual octagon appointment between top lightweight contenders Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson remains uncertain, the two are keeping the online beef alive.

And you know things are serious when Ace Ventura gets involved.

Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) was the one who started Sunday’s short round of Twitter sparring, saying the reason Ferguson (22-3 MMA, 12-1 UFC) – as well as lightweight champ Conor McGregor and the other “bums” – won’t fight him is his, let’s say, unique training background.

To which”El Cucuy” replied with an unimpressed .gif and a rather odd observation on Nurmagomedov’s childhood (via Twitter):

Nurmagomedov, who’d offered to pay out-of-pocket to cover the financial gap behind Ferguson’s refusal to take the matchup, then went on to say that the reason why money has been an issue is because of his fellow lightweight’s lack of confidence in his own win.

The “much better fighter” Ferguson didn’t let it slide, taking the opportunity to say that his potential opponent “can’t box for (expletive)” (via Twitter):

Nurmagomedov has fully embraced social media as a means to cut out the middleman and get across his messages, having most recently taken aim at featherweight champ Jose Aldo and even the UFC itself.

Ranked No. 2 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings, Numargomedov is set on fighting at UFC 209, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on March 4. So much so that his camp is apparently underway – whether that’s for No. 3 ranked Ferguson, No. 9 Michael Chiesa or, who knows, maybe unranked bears and gorillas.

For more on UFC 209, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.