Dana White Doesn’t Sound Too Sure That Tony Ferguson Would Get Title Shot With Win Over Donald Cerrone
Former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson is returning to the Octagon after overcoming a rough phase of his life. ‘El Cucuy will extend his winning streak to 12 if he pulls a win tomorrow night over Donald Cerrone at UFC 238 PPV event from inside United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Of course, with a victory, Ferguson will make a case for himself to qualify for a title shot. Well, not that fast as UFC president Dana White isn’t too sure about that ‘El Cucuy’ will get a chance to take on the winner of Poirier vs. Nurgamodov. (h/t BloodyElbow)
“I can’t say that’s gonna happen,” White said. “Anything is possible. I don’t know who is gonna come out of that fight banged up, what’s gonna happen to them, and everything else, so we’ll see.”
White said on many occasions that he’d figure it out after tomorrow’s UFC 238 event and September’s UFC 242 PPV show who fights who. UFC head honcho isn’t the only one who does a matchmaking job, so uncertainty surrounds the lightweight division continues to loom.
As former two-division champion, Conor Mcgregor has been pretty vocal about a rematch with Khabib since suffering a loss at UFC 229 last October. If all mean Mcgregor returns, it wouldn’t be fair with the winner of Ferguson vs. Cerrone.
“What did I say leading up to the Mayweather-McGregor fight? [That he may never fight again]. Did I not say that? And how many times has he fought since then? Once,” White said of McGregor. “Conor is in a very unique position as a fighter. He has tons of money. His whiskey business is off the charts. Conor now has the ability to be very calculated, sit back, and play the game the way he wants to. There’s so much more to this then people speculate. . .”
“Conor 100 percent believes he can beat Khabib. He wants the rematch, he feels he deserves the rematch before anybody else. So we’ve got to see how these fights play out. This weekend is a very big, important fight in that whole division and what’s gonna happen. Then in September the Khabib fight will play out in Abu Dhabi. Then we’ll see what’s next.”
By assuming if Mcgregor plans to return and gets a Khabib rematch it’d be crazy to think that he’ll bypass top contenders like Ferguson or Cerrone who’re more deserving of a title shot. No doubt Mcgregor is in a money business and for sure he’ll bring more revenue to the company in any fight he’ll participates. So we can somehow feel UFC will do all the efforts to move forward with Conor over others.
Share your thoughts should the winner of Ferguson vs. Cerrone get a title shot next?