Dana White Shares Idea To Have Tony Ferguson And Michael Chandler Fight For #1 Contender Spot

UFC President Dana White shared some of his ideas of what could be next for Khabib Nurmagomedov should he emerge victorious against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254.

Speaking to Mike Swick on the Real Quick With Mike Swick Podcast, Dana said with a win over Gaethje they would look towards opponents the champion has yet to face.

“I think right now when you talk about him (Khabib) being the greatest 155 pounder ever, he’s beat Poirier, he’s beat McGregor and he’s beat a bunch of the other guys in that division to get to where he is now. I think you look at Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson, those two fight for a number one contender spot, he hasn’t fought either one of those guys so there is still that.

Michael Chandler recently joined the UFC coming from Bellator and was immediately offered the opportunity to serve as a back up fighter for this weekends main event at UFC 254. This will see Chandler face either Nurmagomedov or Gaethje should either fighter’s opponent have issues and be forced to withdraw from the scheduled title fight.

The UFC looked to book Chandler against one of the top contenders in the lightweight divison in order to have him on the card regardless of the main event, however, both Ferguson and Poirier turned down the offer greatly in part to the pair of them being attached to a fight with each other that ultimately fell through.

Since this time Ferguson has come out and said he would happily face Chandler before the end of the year looking to get back into the win column after his loss to Justin Gaethje for the interim title at UFC 249.

Chandler is coming off a knockout victory against Benson Henderson that closed out his contract with Bellator seeing him sign to the UFC.