Surging UFC lightweight contender Donald Cerrone will return to the octagon at next month’s UFC 238 event for a fight with former interim champion Tony Ferguson.

Donald Cerrone (36-11 MMA) is coming off a unanimous decision victory over former division title challenger Al Iaquinta, which occured earlier this month at UFC Ottawa.

The victory served as ‘Cowboy’s’ third in a row, as he had previously picked up stoppage wins Alexander Hernandez and Mike Perry respectively.

Meanwhile, Tony Ferguson will return to action for this first time since October’s UFC 229 event. That fall evening in Las Vegas, ‘El Cucuy’ scored a TKO victory over former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis, thus extending his current win streak to eleven fights in a row.

While Donald Cerrone knows that Tony Ferguson represents a very tough fight, he is confident that he has the tools required to hand ‘El Cucuy‘ what would be his first loss in over nine years at UFC 238.

“I watched him fight Lando (Vannata) my buddy,” Cerrone told MMAJunkie. “I know what kind of opponent I’m against. He’s tough as (expletive), he’s very unorthodox, but not a very high-level striker, I don’t think. He’s just high volume. We’ll be all right.”

It is expected that the winner of UFC 238’s Donald Cerrone vs. Tony Ferguson matchup will go on to challenge the winner of the lightweight title unification bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier, which is tentavily slated for UFC 242 in September.

With that said, ‘Cowboy’ knows the stakes are high and expects nothing less than a title shot with a win over ‘El Cucuy’ on June 8 in Chicago.

“I don’t even think UFC needs to say that, because this would be it. There would be nobody else,” Donald Cerrone said. “I beat Tony; I get the title (shot). There’s no one else in line.”

Who do you think will emerge victorious when perennial UFC lightweight contenders Tony Ferguson and Donald Cerrone square off on the main card of UFC 238 next month? Sound off in the comments section PENN Nation!