Tony Ferguson was successful to bag interim lightweight title in October 2017. The American artist embraced victory after submitting defeat to Kevin Lee. With the win, the interim champion inched closer to the possibility of winning lightweight gold after defeating opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, the fight didn’t come to fruition.
Ferguson had to leave the spot vacant owing to injury, leaving the Russian Eagle to face off Al Iaquinta as a last-minute replacement. 34-year-old artist’s inability to compete in the fight left him stripped off his title.
From being quite close to grabbing undisputed lightweight title to having to relinquish interim accolade, the unexpected twist in events made Tony Ferguson quite discontented. However, this didn’t rob away his idea of viewing himself as a champion still. And this is precisely the reason he didn’t shy away from boasting his belt in UFC 229’s fight week.
This is what the fighter had to say,
“I’m the f*cking champ. See this gold right here. I didn’t lose my belt. They took it from me. The one thing they didn’t take is my smile. So after my surgery, I made a conscious decision to not want anybody else’s help that didn’t want to help me. So yeah, I’ve got a little chip on my shoulder. It’s still there. It f*cking weighs a lot. But in this whole entire process, I gained so much more than you guys would ever imagine.”
Whether Ferguson is considered interim champion or not in the MMA community, he certainly has a shot at placing himself in a title spot if he manages to beat Anthony Pettis in upcoming UFC 229. It is most likely that if Ferguson is successful in dispatching defeat to Pettis, he would be taking on Conor vs. Khabib’s winner next.
This means that there is a possibility that Tony Ferguson might emerge as next undisputed lightweight king next.
Do you think Tony Ferguson can make it to lightweight’s summit? Comment below.
