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Tony Ferguson: Nurmagomedov and I deserve to fight, but I’ll also fight McGregor

LAS VEGAS – In light of the events that unfolded after Khabib Nurmagomedov tapped out Conor McGregor in the headlining bout of Saturday’s UFC 229, it’s hard to predict what will happen in the UFC’s lightweight division now.

But former interim champion Tony Ferguson (24-3 MMA, 14-1 UFC), who captured his 11th straight win by finishing Anthony Pettis (24-3 MMA, 14-1 UFC) in Saturday’s co-headliner, has an idea.

“Khabib and I deserve to fight,” Ferguson said in the post-fight press conference at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “We need to fight for the fifth time – we need to try this out again. He is the champ. I was the interim champ. I’m still the (expletive) champ. There’s no BS in this.”

Talking about a fifth attempt at making a matchup come together sounds hyperbolic, but it’s an actual number when it comes to the cursed history of Ferguson and Nurmagomedov. The two were scheduled to fight in four separate occasions, but the bouts always fell through due to injuries or illness, from both sides.

Under normal circumstances, it would make sense for them to meet now. Ferguson’s streak, now capped off by a finish over an ex-champ, should be enough to earn him a shot at the champion. It’s hard to think of better timing, too, considering Ferguson pulled it off on the same night that said champion defended his belt for the first time.

But, as we know, circumstances were far from normal on Saturday. After fulfilling his own prophecy and getting McGregor to tap in the fourth round of their long-awaited encounter, Nurmagomedov jumped off the octagon and attacked some of the Irishmen’s cornermen, while some of his own entourage leaped inside the cage to attack McGregor. Madness, captured from many angles, ensued.

The ugly sight was quickly and almost unanimously reprimanded, including by “disgusted” UFC president Dana White. But, in a sport where bad blood works as such an effective promotional force, we all know it may very well that it may end up being just thing to justify an immediate rematch between Nurmagomedov (27-0 MMA, 11-0 UFC) and McGregor (21-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC).

We know McGregor is already talking about it. But Ferguson has different thoughts on the situation.

“Rematch? The dude got finished,” Ferguson said. “The dude got straight-up finished – no, I’m going to stop you right there. The guy got finished. If you get finished, you get to move the (expletive) on. I’m here. I just finished Anthony Pettis via verbal tap.”

Ferguson was ultimately respectful of not only Pettis, but both headliners – heck, he may even stop calling them “McNuggets” and “Tiramisu” now. But, while he’s not “even going to get mad” at the situation, he did have some thoughts on what it meant for the sport.

“You have these two knuckleheads over there making this sport look bad,” Ferguson said. “So when I had that media scrum over there, and I yelled at all you guys, ‘Don’t be feeding that bull(expletive).’ Straight up. I am the champ. I don’t have a belt up here, I don’t need a belt up here to be the champ. So if you guys want to feed that, go ahead. Put that in your pocket and take it with you. But what I’m doing here is cleaning up the sport. This is an Olympic-level type of sport and it needs to be cleaned up.

“… I train my ass off, and I have a bunch of fighters looking at me to set this sport clean. I’m going to do what I’ve got to do. I’m not going to worry about anybody else doing what they’re doing, because they’re going to have to go home at night and they’re going to have to decide if they were doing the right thing. Not me.”

And his thing, Ferguson did. And, more impressively, he did it less than six months after having surgery on his injured knee – the same one that kept him out of the most recent attempt at a meeting with Nurmagomedov, at UFC 223. Nurmagomedov went on to meet Al Iaquinta that night, and earned the 155-pound title in the process.

Ferguson was, as usual, beaming with confidence in every interview leading up to the fight, talking about being a “phoenix reborn.” Ferguson walked around fight week with a belt on his shoulder and made no secrets of his thoughts on who the real champion was.

Ferguson ultimately put his money where his mouth was, not only snagging a win but also an added $50,000 for his “Fight of the Night” efforts. As a bonus, Ferguson got to have “a lot of fun” in there, too.

But getting there wasn’t as easy as “El Cucuy” may have made it seem beforehand.

“I was really nervous going into the match,” Ferguson said. “You guys have no idea how nervous I was. I was trying to find my groove, trying to listen to my music. But it was so hard. It’s been a year since I’ve been competing inside this octagon. I wanted to go in there and I wanted to demonstrate everything I’ve been working for.

“How embarrassing would it have been if I lost? And then all those videos that I’ve been doing, right? It would have came back at me. So I had to make sure I went in there and I put this dude away in color.”

As he’d made perfectly clear before, Ferguson thinks a title fight should come from his latest victorious effort – and he even started a “show of hands” in the media room to see who was with him there. He will, however, also accept a bout with McGregor.

“If you want to give me Conor, I’ll go toe-to-toe with him,” Ferguson said. “I’ll put my foot inside a tire. I would love to go toe-to-toe with him. A Mexican warrior vs. an Irish warrior? That’s pretty proper, I got you.”

Whether the Irishman will want that, though, is whole different story.

“Conor doesn’t want to fight me,” Ferguson said. “I saw him as we were walking out to the weigh-ins. He walked up, he did his strut, I turned around and he (expletive) stopped. He looked like a dear in headlights. Nobody wants to be trapped inside that cage with me.

“They don’t want to get caught by my elbows. They don’t want to get hit by any of my kicks and they don’t want their conditioning checked by me. I’m a different animal than these guys. They want to be animals inside there? I’m the dog catcher, guys. I’ve got news for them.”

Right now, Ferguson’s plan is to treat himself to some pizza, Coke and peanut butter M&M’s while enjoying the company of his son and wife. Later that same night, though, “El Cucuy” said he would already start watching film on his fight and preparing for the next one – which, if it was up to him, could happen as soon as next week.

“I’m here to work, gentlemen,” Ferguson said, before catching himself. “And ladies – not even in that order.”

To hear Ferguson’s full, inspired chat with reporters, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC 229, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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