Dustin Poirier and Tony Ferguson won’t be fighting afterall.
The big lightweight match-up was penciled in for UFC 254 on October 24; however, the negotiation process between both sides were still on-going before the bout was made public, thus the match-up was never official.
Poirier has made it clear that he has no problem fighting Ferguson, but “the prize needs to be right” for him to step into the octagon against the former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion. According to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, the match-up is no longer expected to take place next month as Poirier has gone back home to Louisiana:
The 31-year-old confirmed the news himself with ESPN, “The UFC and I didn’t come to terms. I will not be fighting on October 24.” As of this writing, there’s no word on whether officials intend to find a new opponent for Ferguson.
The only possible fighter for Ferguson to face in the top 5 left is Dan Hooker, who is coming off a loss to Poirier back in July. Conor McGregor – who is still ranked at No. 4 despite being retired – could also be an option if the former UFC Lightweight Champion decides to make his comeback. Khabib did state that if McGregor beat Ferguson or Poirier then he would be willing to grant the former two-division champion a rematch.
Reportedly, if Justin Gaetheje pulls out of his fight against Khabib next month then officials were set to put Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov as the main event. We’ll keep you updated should anything changes between now and October 24th.