Tony Ferguson Believes He Deserves To Fight Khabib Nurmagomedov Next
Tony Ferguson believes that he should be next in line for a crack at UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov following his latest win.
Fifth Time Is A Charm?
It seems that the MMA gods do not want Nurmagomedov and Ferguson to fight each other despite the interest from fight fans across the world wanting to see that fight happen.
After a third attempt, they did not fight each other. Nurmagomedov and Ferguson’s highly-anticipated lightweight match-up was scrapped when Nurmagomedov was rushed to the hospital the day before the weigh-ins prior to the March 4, 2017 UFC 209 pay-per-view (PPV) event. He was unable to compete in his scheduled interim lightweight title match in the co-main event, which was dubbed as the people’s main event.
Then, the promotion has made it for the fourth time at UFC 223 but that fight got scrapped after Ferguson suffered a knee injury. As seen in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 229 pay-per-view event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ferguson beat Anthony Pettis by second round TKO.
Tony Ferguson Believes
Following this fight, Ferguson made it known that he wants a crack at Khabib, which would make the fifth time at trying to make the fight official. It should be noted that Khabib’s future is up in the air due to the UFC 229 brawl.
“Khabib and I deserve to fight,” Ferguson said to MMAJunkie. “We need to fight for the fifth time – we need to try this out again. He is the champ. I was the interim champ. I’m still the (expletive) champ. There’s no BS in this.”
Potential Rematch
Although McGregor has already called for a rematch with Khabib, Ferguson disagrees with that fight being greenlit again.
“Rematch? The dude got finished,” Ferguson said. “The dude got straight-up finished – no, I’m going to stop you right there. The guy got finished. If you get finished, you get to move the (expletive) on. I’m here. I just finished Anthony Pettis via verbal tap.”
McGregor Next?
Ferguson thinks a title fight should happen due to his latest performance. He did also make it clear that he would also accept a bout with McGregor.
“If you want to give me Conor, I’ll go toe-to-toe with him,” Ferguson said. “I’ll put my foot inside a tire. I would love to go toe-to-toe with him. A Mexican warrior vs. an Irish warrior? That’s pretty proper, I got you.”
“Conor doesn’t want to fight me,” Ferguson said. “I saw him as we were walking out to the weigh-ins. He walked up, he did his strut, I turned around and he (expletive) stopped. He looked like a deer in headlights. Nobody wants to be trapped inside that cage with me.”
