A lightweight showdown between Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson has been booked for UFC 274 on May 7th in Pheonix, Arizona.
Former Bellator champion Chandler burst onto the UFC scene last year with a big TKO win over Dan Hooker, which booked him an immediate shot at the vacant lightweight title after Khabib Nurmagomedov relinquished his iron-grip on the belt.
However, Chandler would go on to lose by TKO to Charles Oliveira and he’s since lost out on the scorecards in a five round war with Justin Gaethje back in November.
That’s left Chandler placed No.5 in the division heading into this next fight against former interim title holder Ferguson, who has slid down to No.7 in the rankings after suffering a three-fight losing streak over the past couple of years.
That slump began with a TKO loss against Justin Gaethje, which brought an end to a 12-fight winning streak, and was followed up by unanimous decision losses to both Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush.
Chandler vs. Ferguson is a major addition to a UFC 274 fight card that will be headlined by a lightweight title encounter between current champion Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje, while the line-up also includes Donald Cerrone. vs Joe Lauzon and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua vs. Ovince Saint Preux.
