Last month, in the main event of the UFC’s latest trip to Mexico, Tony Ferguson earned a unanimous decision victory over former lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos. With this win, which was undeniably the biggest of his career, Ferguson extended his win streak to a whopping nine straight.
From there, Ferguson seemed ready for a title shot against new lightweight champ Conor McGregor, or at the very least, an interim title fight with the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov. Unfortunately for Ferguson, however, McGregor recently embarked on a hiatus from competition, and Nurmagomedov won’t be ready to fight until the spring.
In a recent interview with Fox Sports, Ferguson explained he doesn’t feel like waiting around for McGregor and Nurmagomedov.
“I’m looking towards the next fight,” he said. “I worked on healing already. I had something signed up in January already but the opponent needed some more time to heal apparently. I’m ready to go. Less talk, more walk.”
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He even admitted that, in the meantime, he’d be willing to drop down to featherweight for a title fight with new champ Jose Aldo.
“Maybe Aldo,” he said. “Jump down to 145, see what’s up down there.”
Given that Ferguson is a fairly sizeable lightweight, it’s hard to imagine him making the featherweight division’s’ 145-pound limit. Yet he’s confident he could pull it off.
“I can do it. I’m a wrestler. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m really focused. 145 would be really fun to test myself mentally, too. A lot of people, they like to climb these peaks and they like to do all these other things. I like to push my body to just extremity to get past the mental toughness barriers. So fighting at 145, that would be great. If Kenny Florian can do it, I can do it.”
And unsurprisingly, Ferguson believes he’d be a massive threat in the featherweight division.
“I think I would pose a big threat at 145.”
Would you be interested in seeing Tony Ferguson at featherweight? Sound off, Penn Nation!