After a blasting battle against Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler finds himself against Tony Ferguson at UFC 274.
Chandler was seconds away from becoming the UFC Lightweight champion at UFC 262 before Charles Oliveira came back to finish Chandler in the 2nd-round. It didn’t discourage “Iron” as he went on to compete against Justin Gaethje at UFC 268, giving one of the best fights of 2021.
Meanwhile, Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson is on a 3 fight-losing streak and seeks his first victory in nearly three years. Tony has back-to-back losses against Gaethje, Oliveira, and Beneil Dariush. “El Cucuy” had his last win back in June 2019, with a TKO win over Donald Cerrone.
Michael Chandler doesn’t believe that Tony Ferguson has lost a step after three straight losses
Chandler is approaching a fight with Ferguson where the one-time UFC interim lightweight champion is also looking to get back on track after 3-straight losses including a TKO suffered against Justin Gaethje and a pair of lopsided decisions with Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush.
On the other hand, Ferguson absorbed 143 significant strikes against Gaethje before suffering a 5th-round stoppage. In total, Ferguson has lost his last 12 consecutive rounds while absorbing a total of 305 strikes in three fights.
Still, Chandler is hesitant to declare Ferguson past his prime, praising Tony’s ability to withstand an impossible damage. But he’s more than ready to pour on the punishment when they clash on May 7 to find out for certain.
In a recent interview, Chandler said:
“He’s a scary, scary man. He doesn’t really have an off switch. Even Justin Gaethje couldn’t really shut the off switch off. He was still conscious, he was still moving. Tony Ferguson is just that dude.”
Even if Ferguson is still capable of taking a punch, Chandler realizes that he himself is a very dangerous striker. And even though Tony never seems to back off from a battle, he expects nothing different from Ferguson but an absolute war.
“I think I am a very dangerous opponent not just for anybody but definitely a guy like Tony Ferguson, who’s there to be hit,” Chandler explained.
“It’s a fight that scares me a little bit because Tony’s a little bit crazy but those are the guys I want to fight,” Chandler added.
“It doesn’t matter if Tony Ferguson is on a 10-fight win streak or a 10-fight loss streak. I am preparing like he is Superman. Preparing like he is the best Tony Ferguson we’ve ever seen.”