One of the biggest fights and rivalries to never get settled has once again given MMA fans a small heartbeat of hope. Not as fighters, but as coaches on TUF, the man that makes the decisions is warming up to the idea.
In a recent interview, Dana was somewhat hesitant asking if the fans, media and everyone else would be interested in watching a season where the coaches don’t fight, before ending it with the fact that he would consider the idea.
Now things could get very tricky considering Khabib not only has been out of competition since submitting Justin Gaethje in 2020, but he has also been growing his MMA organization in Eagle FC, which has been gaining a lot of momentum since making its USA debut.
While Khabib will always be a lifelong martial artist, his focus appears to be elsewhere. But let’s not forget that he is a fantastic coach and has cornered the likes of Islam and other family members like Umar, Usman and Abubakar to name a few. His affiliation with AKA would also give his team in TUF access to some of the best coaches on earth.
As for Tony, he is still an active fighter who is very well respected and still can make every performance a dog fight and a possible FOTN or KO of the year. Unfortunately, the man who once had one of the longest win streaks ever is now on the worst skid of his career.
This opportunity could be the time off that Tony needs as well as the chance for him to find the motivation that he may no longer have. It will be very interesting to see how Tony works as a coach considering for many years he trained on his own and not as part of a team. But with the amount of experience and knowledge, he could easily make for a fantastic coach.
The two fighters were long rumoured to be scheduled with over 5 fights falling through. While we may never get peak Khabib or Tony it would still make for one of the most entertaining seasons due to the amount of animosity and love lost that both fighters have for each other. If their press conferences are anything to go by this will easily pass Tito vs Shamrock, Holm vs Tate or Bisping vs Mayhem as one of the most heated TUF seasons ever.
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