Tony Ferguson promises 'fight news soon' but rules out one potential opponent
Tony Ferguson has dismissed a possible fight with Islam Makhachev after the latest call out by the Russian following his win over Drew Dober at UFC 259.
'El Cucuy' is currently on a bad run in UFC as he suffered two back-to-back losses. The first one was against Justin Gaethje for the interim Lightweight championship and the other facing Charles Oliveira at UFC 256.
Makhachev, who is from Dagestan, just like his mentor and retired lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, easily defeated Dober to score his seventh straight victory in the promotion.
After the bout, he challenged Tony Ferguson as his next adversary, claiming it made sense. Khabib Nurmagomedov was supposed to fight El Cucuy but the fight never came to fruition.
Now, Khabib's pupil Makhachev seems to think that the fight with Tony Ferguson is a natural inheritance for his career. However, the American fighter disagrees.
Ranked No. 5 in the UFC Lightweight rankings, Tony Ferguson took to his social media to show his discontentment with the proposal. In a hard-to-read text, El Cucuy explained what he thinks about fighting Makhachev.
"Just For Kicks" crew, today's #TiramisuTuesday will resume manana [tomorrow in Spanish]. Good ol'e fathead's primo [he is probably calling Makhachev 'primo,' which means cousin in Spanish, 'fathead' is how he refers to Khabib] wants to fight his battles for him. Typical DagiFighter talk "We Must Fight!!!... No, not right now. Soon! We Must Fight!!! But not right now... Maybe next year." No disrespect but, get the f*ck out of here!!! Isee can eat a big one or two *mack* Nyuck Nyuck Nyuck # BeGon'Thot #WhyIOutta #FightNewsSoon!!! And no, it's not that dude. Champ Sh*t Only," Tony Ferguson wrote.
He also used the hashtag 'fight news soon,' suggesting that his next fight could be in the works. Besides Makhachev, Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler were two other names who have issued their desire to fight Tony Ferguson.
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Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov's latest altercation
Tony Ferguson has never forgiven Khabib Nurmagomedov for pulling out from their title fight in 2017. According to the Dagestani grappler, he felt ill during the weight cut process.
During a recent interview, The Eagle slammed Tony Ferguson as he said he has never considered El Cucuy to be an elite fighter in the Lightweight division.
"All of my close ones would confirm this – I swear, I have never considered him an elite lightweight. He is very good; was very good; but never an elite one. You just can't belong to the elite at the age of 37. Nobody has ever done this, and even Khabib can't. Heavyweight is a different story. But at 155 pounds, never. Nobody could change my mind in this regard. That's first. Second of all, since 2016, he [Tony Ferguson] has fought Kevin Lee, [Edson] Barboza, [Anthony] Pettis, and [Donald] Cerrone. These four have 20 losses combined for the last four years. So, since 2016, he hasn't fought any solid competition. But now he is facing young, tough, top lightweights – Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje. And they both picked him apart like a schoolboy," said Khabib Nurmagomedov.