After Tony Ferguson’s victory over a game Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone last week, the former interim lightweight champion is surely in top contention for the next shot at the real championship belt. The California native is on a 12-fight winning streak, as Ferguson hasn’t lost a bout since 2012. However, Dustin Poirer will be getting a crack at the lightweight title against Khabib first, and many fans aren’t too thrilled with that.
Despite Ferguson’s success, he’s yet to taste the official lightweight gold. White has attempted to pencil in the lightweight fighter for a title bout several times; however, numerous complications such as an injury or personal issues have derailed his opportunities.
Fans however believe that The UFC president is actually the man holding Ferguson back from gaining the lightweight title and Dana White has responded to the outcry of Tony Ferguson supporters (transcript courtesy of
mmafighting.com):
“When did I say that this guy doesn’t deserve anything? I mean if you do your homework on the Tony Ferguson thing, how many times have Tony Ferguson and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] been lined up to fight? It didn’t work out,” White responded when asked about Ferguson during an Instagram Live session on Tuesday.
“He was the interim champion, blew his knee out, he had to have ACL surgery. He was out. We just offered him the fight with [Dustin] Poirier to fight Khabib next, he turned the fight down. Then he came back a few weeks later and was ready to fight again.
“Everybody’s acting like I’ve denied Tony his shot at the title. It’s just that he’s had a bad string of luck and things haven’t gone his way.”
White has stated that Ferguson should be the next man to face either Khabib or Poirier following their title fight in September; however, he makes it clear that he can’t make any guarantees until the title bout at UFC 242 is finished:
“He just looked phenomenal in the fight [against Donald Cerrone]. I just posted something the other day about his last seven opponents. The guy’s a stud and he’s in a good place right now mentally and physically and we’ll see how this thing plays out in September and then we’ll go from there,” White said about Ferguson.
“But everybody’s terrorizing me like I’m not giving him what he deserves. If you’re a fan of the sport, you saw how this whole thing played out. That’s how we got where we are now.”