The Takedown | Tony Ferguson is the type of guy to save the day for the UFC – so give him the Khabib fight anyway
- After stepping up and risking it all in his loss to Justin Gaethje, ‘El Cucuy’ deserves to have his loyalty rewarded
- If Nurmagomedov sees off Gaethje, then Ferguson’s name should still be at the front of the queue
His face badly bruised and his orbital bone broken, Tony Ferguson still summoned the strength to get on the mic after his crushing TKO defeat by Justin Gaethje at UFC 249. “Remember we did this for you, to bring sports back,” he said in the Octagon.
It’s easy to forget that a month ago “El Cucuy” was primed for the fight his whole career had been building up to – a tilt at lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in Brooklyn on April 18.
After the coronavirus chaos put paid to it, he stepped up and risked everything to save the day for the UFC, agreeing to a rescheduled short-notice main event against Gaethje on May 9 in Florida as the promotion scrambled to put on a show.
“It’s been a long camp, I’ll be real,” he said. “We’ve been preparing since November. The Khabib fight didn’t go through. I prepared for Khabib, not too much of a striker.”
The gamble didn’t pay off and now Ferguson is left with nothing – a familiar story in the sport. The dream lightweight match-up against Nurmagomedov that has fallen apart five times, and the payday and potential new level of fame that go with it, now may never happen.
