It’s a very interesting time in the UFC‘s lightweight division. Khabib Nurmagomedov might or might not be retired. Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier are supposed to fight, but the deal still isn’t signed.
On top of that, Michael Chandler and Tony Ferguson are calling each other out, but a fight hasn’t been made. The UFC is dealing with several interesting personalities and situations trying to get fights booked.
Just this week, Tony Ferguson called out Michael Chandler for a fight at UFC 256 in December. That card has had some major blows dealt to it and as a result, Ferguson called for a co-main event slot against Michael Chandler.
The UFC previously had offered Chandler to Ferguson back in October. However, Ferguson was not interested in taking the fight against Chandler. A couple of months later and Ferguson has changed his tune about the potential matchup.
However, there’s one problem to all of this. Michael Chandler won’t be ready to fight Ferguson next month. After UFC 254, Chandler took a little break after back-to-back camps, and he would like a full camp to prepare for El Cucuy.
UFC 257 Co-Main?
“There is a zero percent chance I’ll fight Tony Ferguson in December. Tony, you had the opportunity to fight me in October and you said no. You didn’t bring up fighting in December until it was way past the 11th hour. Let’s be realist and sign up for January 23,” Chandler told ESPN.
Right now, UFC 257 is scheduled for January 23rd and the main event is supposed to be McGregor – Poirier. In all likelyhood, that fight is going to get finalized sooner rather than later.
The card currently has no co-main event, but Chandler sees it as the perfect opportunity for the matchup. These two matchups would line up perfectly for the UFC lightweight tournament that Chandler proposed back at UFC 254.
This is a very interesting situation and I’m very curious to see how it plays out. Chandler and Ferguson is the fight to make, I just hope that egos and contracts don’t get in the way of this matchup.