Tony Ferguson may have been brutally knocked out by Michael Chandler at UFC 274 just a few weeks ago, but rather than look for an easier fight next time out the 38-year-old now wants to fight another leading contender, Dustin Poirier.
“I would love to be able to fight Dustin Poirier,” Ferguson told MMA Junkie. “Obviously he likes to go stand-up. A stand-up battle wouldn’t be bad.”
Others might disagree however, given that Ferguson has now lost his last four fights in a row over the past couple of years, having gone 12-fights without defeat prior to that.
It’s a run that began with a TKO loss to Justin Gaethje during a gruelling five round war that took a big toll on the former interim champ.
Following on from that Ferguson suffered two losses in a row on the scorecards against Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush.
To be fair to Ferguson, in the opening round of his latest fight with Chandler he actually looked more like his old self, right up until a front kick from Chandler early in the second round switched off his lights in devastating fashion, leaving him lying unconscious for several minutes afterwards.
Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Poirier is coming off a submission loss to current champ Charles Oliveira, but prior to that he’d only lost once in his last 10 fights, and that was to another champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
As such it doesn’t feel like the time is right for this match-up, and indeed Poirier himself has suggested that he’d prefer Ferguson to get a win under his belt before they lock horns.
For now though Ferguson isn’t quite ready to get back into the octagon just yet and has suggested in another recent interview that he’s looking to change up his training camp after having run his own for a number of years, mentioning the likes of John Hackleman, Jackson-Wink, Syndicate and the UFC’s own Performance Institute as potential options.
“When I’m ready to fight I will let the UFC know,” Fergusons said. “I guarantee you they’ll let me know, too, ‘Hey, this is who we have.”
