Tony Ferguson is one of the more tenured fighters that the UFC has in the Lightweight division. He has won 15 fights in the UFC and lost just two. The second loss came at the hands of Justin Gaethje earlier this year for the Interim Lightweight Championship at UFC 249.

Ferguson hasn’t fought since, but was scheduled to fight Dustin Poirier. However, that fight never got booked after the UFC couldn’t come on contract terms with Poirier. Ferguson, in solidarity with Poirier, also withdrew his name from the card.

But it doesn’t look like supporting Poirier was the only motive. Ferguson spoke about the failed booking with Ariel Helwani of ESPN and had this to say.

“Look at the rankings man. The dude wanted to be ranked higher than me anyway, for that’s exhibit A. Let’s go exhibit B, no come on dude seriously, it should have been Dustin fighting, this and that. Stepping up for nothing? No, it’s getting a fight hype, and let’s do this sh**. If there’s hype, you gotta build a fight around it. If there’s no fight, then there’s no hype. I got a bunch of things going on dude… I am getting older Ariel, but I am getting wiser and I am getting smarter, and on my efficiency, I still haven’t peaked.”

Tony Ferguson and his future fight plans

Ferguson was scheduled to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 249, but COVID meant that Khabib couldn’t travel for the fight. Gaethje stepped in short notice and ended the fight in the fifth round. Now that Gaethje got the Khabib matchup, the Poirier fight would have been perfect to settle the next number one contender.

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However, that isn’t meant to be. With the addition of Michael Chandler to the Lightweight division, there are a fair amount of fighters who could step up. But it also depends on whether UFC can get Ferguson back on the table. He did them a solid by taking a risky Gaethje fight on short-notice in April. If he feels like he isn’t being appreciated, there must be some truth to it.

The UFC has options at the top of Lightweight, but no one as legitimate as Ferguson. Tony himself said, ‘you are only as good as your last fight’ to Ariel on the show. His last fight wasn’t the best, and hopefully, he can come back strong.