Tony Ferguson is stuck in limbo, currently looking for a fight. However Chael Sonnen recently revealed that he almost had a massive match against former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
Ferguson and Sonnen have been fairly close for a long time, having trained together in the past. Therefore it is only natural that Chael would be on Tony’s side during a lot of his recent disagreements with the UFC over scheduling fights and getting paid what he feels he deserves. Now that Khabib Nurmagomedov has apparently announced his retirement, Chael also also been banging the drum that Tony should be the one to fight for the lightweight title when it becomes vacant.
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Chael Sonnen Booked Ferguson vs GSP In Submission Underground
Even though Tony Ferguson has been struggling to get a fight in the UFC, Chael Sonnen was apparently able to book him something big in his grappling promotion, Submission Underground. Speaking in a recent interview with Tony, the two discussed how he had it set up where Tony would face Georges St-Pierre in a SUG event earlier this year. However GSP was unable to get out of Canada for it, so it eventually fell apart. So Tony offered to take on Jordan Burroughs instead.
“You’ve got your s–t together with Submission Underground,” Ferguson told Sonnen. “Even GSP, I would have loved to go in there and grapple him. Jordan Burroughs as well. I have the athletic talent to be able to do a lot of different things and I’m from a wrestling background. Ben Askren got his a– kicked because he’s folkstyle, I’m freestyle so c’mon.”
“You know Tony, I know if I ever gave you an update on that by the way,” Sonnen responded. “And I appreciate you giving a shout-out to Submission Underground, but so the fans know what we’re talking about, we tried to make a match with you versus Georges St-Pierre. You accepted in about a half of a second, Georges St-Pierre accepted and found out he can’t get out of Canada. Okay, you say ‘Fine, give me Jordan Burroughs and make it a freestyle wrestling match.” You accepted, matter of fact it was your idea. To give you an update that on that, Jordan Burroughs passed on the match, so I think that’s a compliment to you.”
From there Tony Ferguson showed respect to Jordan Burroughs, and told Chael Sonnen that he would be willing to do Submission Underground at a later date. However it is crazy to think of how close we were to seeing Ferguson and GSP grappling each other. Perhaps things will come together in the end and they can make it happen.
