Tony Ferguson wants to face Dustin Poirier for the UFC Lightweight Championship
In an interview with Submission Radio, top-ranked UFC Lightweight Tony Ferguson has suggested that a matchup between him and Dustin Poirier would be ideal to decide the new UFC Lightweight Champion.
Ferguson asserted that he deserves the chance to fight for the UFC Lightweight Championship. He added that he’d like to face fellow high-ranking Lightweight competitor Dustin Poirier in the all-important clash for the belt.
“I’ve kind of called out everybody on one post and Dustin (Poirier) already f*****g said, ‘Let’s do it!’.
“The way I called it was that you’ve got to have myself and you’ve got to have Dustin Poirier fight for the (UFC Lightweight) title. I mean (Justin) Gaethje f*****g lost. I’ve been sitting here and I’ve been doing my s**t and I’ve been making sure I keep my cool, (stay) calm and collected.
“Being real: Give me the f*****g title shot. Give me my chance. You guys want to see me fight; I really want to fight.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
Tony Ferguson aims to win the UFC Lightweight Championship
Tony Ferguson boasted a 12-fight winning streak ahead of his UFC 249 main event matchup for the Interim Lightweight belt against Justin Gaethje in May of this year.
Ferguson’s last defeat came back in 2012 and El Cucuy was indeed the favorite heading into the aforesaid matchup against Gaethje. Nevertheless, Tony Ferguson suffered a vicious defeat at the hands of Gaethje, losing via fifth-round TKO.
Interim UFC Lightweight titlist Justin Gaethje subsequently faced UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254. Gaethje was stopped by Nurmagomedov via submission in round two of their bout.
Following the conclusion of the UFC 254 Lightweight Championship unification matchup, Nurmagomedov announced his retirement from professional MMA competition.
The consensus in the Mixed Martial Arts community is that Nurmagomedov could officially vacate the Undisputed UFC Lightweight Championship in the days to come.
Considering the aforementioned series of developments, several top-tier UFC Lightweight fighters have expressed their desire to compete for the championship once it’s vacated by Nurmagomedov.
Dustin Poirier is one of the most likely Lightweights to compete in a matchup for the vacant UFC Lightweight belt in the immediate future. However, Poirier has lately been linked to a Welterweight bout against Conor McGregor that’s purportedly set to transpire on January 23rd, 2021.
On the other hand, Justin Gaethje is coming off a stoppage loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, with the former rather unlikely to receive an immediate title shot and quick turnaround. Gaethje, however, has noted that he does intend to fight again at the earliest.
Furthermore, in spite of Michael Chandler’s name being liked to a fight against Tony Ferguson, the latter has consistently claimed that he intends to fight for the UFC Lightweight belt rather than face the promotional newcomer (Chandler).
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