Tony Ferguson: Nate Diaz Needs To Fight Or Retire

Tony Ferguson was supposed to face Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC interim lightweight championship at UFC 209. However, that fight did not happen when Nurmagomedov failed to make the weigh-ins, having been transported to the hospital instead. Now, Ferguson is looking for his next opponent and a title shot.

“There’s a few things we’re trying to get in order,” Ferguson told The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently. “We were trying to get a fight in before Ramadan, but Khabib doesn’t want to fight. He has a lot of issues going on with his stomach, so we’re trying to figure out who’s next but I don’t want to go backwards. I want to go forward, and I think Nate Diaz, with his ranking at number eight, then Michael Johnson and so on and so forth, I’m kind of just chilling right now. I’m enjoying my time being a father and having fun with this stuff.”

The UFC lightweight division is booked up right now as the division’s champion Conor McGregor is chasing down a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. A fight with Nurmagomedov isn’t likely as he will wait to fight until the fall due to the holy month of Ramadan in May. Eddie Alvarez is taking on Dustin Poirier at UFC 211, and Michael Chiesa is facing Kevin Lee in June. One fighter that he has yet to fight is Nate Diaz, but Diaz seems to have little interest in the fight. Ferguson called out Diaz for seemingly not wanting to fight anyone not named Conor McGregor.

“I’m down for the battle of California. He wants to represent 209. I’m from 805 in the Oxnard area. I think, obviously, my hands are a lot better. I think this game is about the glory and not all about the money. Obviously you have to make you piece in this industry but s**t, Nate, if you don’t want to fight, move on. Retire. Go do something else because we’re here to fight in this industry and everybody else is taken so Nate would be the next one up.”

“If Conor doesn’t step up, they’ll make an interim belt. I think they’re gonna make an interim belt either way. I just think interim is a word that they throw around a lot and it’s gonna be thrown my way. I don’t think anything else is going to change right now. Conor’s obviously the favorite at my weight class but I don’t play favorite. I knock ‘em all out. I finish them, D’arce or knockout, so it doesn’t matter. The division’s full of guys moving up and down weight classes or guys going to fight in other sports, but we’re really here. This is a shark tank. I’m a hammerhead still, and you’re gonna see these guys come in my division and I’m gonna chew them up and spit them out. This is my division.”

You can watch the interview here: