Since defeating Kevin Lee at UFC 216 on October 7th, 2017, for the UFC Lightweight Interim title a lot of people are wondering what is next for #1 ranked El Cuyuy Tony Ferguson. In early December it was announced via Instagram that Ferguson had surgery on his Elbow (it was never explained why) which has kept him sidelined as he is now in recovery mode. But as he is recovering from the surgery the world is awaiting that special announcement, Tony Ferguson Vs Conor Mcgregor to unify the lightweight title. But what is the holdup? to be honest, besides Tony's surgery we (the audience) really do not know only Dana White, Sean Shelby, and Joe Silva know What is going on behind closed doors.
There have been rumors that Tony and Conor were supposed to meet at the sensational UFC 219 event that will be closing out the year. But that fell through after the Bellator incident with Conor Mcgregor, which everyone knows about it as it was covered by every media source. At the Bellator event that was in Dublin that Conor attended Not only did he attend the event, he hopped over the cage during a celebration and put his hands on a referee and commissioner of the MMA World.
While the speculation is that Conor is the reason this fight has not been booked yet, it might as well be true as he is the champion. El Cuyuy started the trending hashtag #DefendorVacate, and that is very fair if the division is being held up over money or a champions arrogance. While Tony has Conor in his crosshairs, Khabib Nurmagomedov has Tony in his crosshairs, But Khabib wants to finish the fight with Edson Barboza first, then he would like to move onto Tony.
A grudge match between Tony and Khabib could easily determine who is the top dog in the UFC's Lightweight division but Khabib must get past Edson Barboza first before he discusses anything about Tony or Conor. It would be a potential fight with Tony Ferguson for his Interim Championship and it is very well possible as the fight has been canceled time and time again. It definitely has the capability to be the biggest fight of 2018 and fight of the year only if Conor does not defend his belt against El Cuyuy.
Which in this case honestly if it was any other champion in the UFC not defending their belt in almost 2 years or pulling the antics Conor has recently pulled, I do believe they would have been stripped of the belt already. As Tony Ferguson continues to scream "Defend Or Vacate McNuggets" the world continues to wait for a fancy poster to be presented with the words "Ferguson Vs Mcgregor" on it to finally Unify Conor's Belt and Tony's interim Belt. There is honestly no telling when this announcement will come and hopefully, it will be sooner than later. But until then we will have to be patient and see how the Lightweight Division shapes and shifts with El Cuyuy being at the top, awaiting his chance to be King!
