Tony Ferguson is all set to face Li Jingliang in his welterweight return at UFC 279 this Saturday. Ferguson is coming off a brutal front-kick knockout loss to Michael Chandler at UFC 274.
It would be interesting to see how his welterweight comeback goes but another thing that the whole world would be interested is, seeing the undefeated Russian Khabib ‘The Eagle’ back in the octagon for one more fight.
During the UFC 279 media day, Ferguson said “That dude is not retired”, “I am the one to get him out of retirement”. We all know the long feud Ferguson has had with Khabib. Tony Ferguson vs Khabib Nurmagomedov was probably the most anticipated matchup that never happened. After all, they were scheduled to fight for a ridiculed five times but were never able to settle the beef inside the octagon.
Though Ferguson is still hopeful that we will see Khabib’s return in the octagon. Earlier this year both fighters had shown interest in coaching ‘The Ultimate Fighter season. Even the UFC president Dana White expressed his interest in letting these two coach the reality show. It seems like everyone is waiting for Khabib to get the ball rolling.
“We’re waiting on Khabib’s fat ass. I actually called him Khabib. Did you guys hear that s***? We’re waiting on ‘Fathead’s fat ass and I’m going to be real with you, we got the green light from the brass, went and talked to them. We got the green light from his coach. We got the green light from his agent”. Ferguson further added, “Whether it’s a fight or not, we’ll go and coach and I’m sure we’ll make it entertaining”.
To be honest, observing how much weight Khabib has gained since his retirement, it’s hard to imagine him getting down to his fighting weight class i.e. 155 lbs. In the end, none of this will matter if Ferguson is not able to break his 4 fight-losing streak to get back into the win column come this Saturday at UFC 279.
Tony Ferguson vs Li Jingliang
Even though Tony Ferguson suffered the most horrific loss of his career just a few months ago, in the first round of that fight he showed flashes of the fighter he once was. Many people are enforcing the narrative that Ferguson is nearing the end of his career. Fighting Li Jingliang is a much-needed step down in competition for him.
‘The Leach’ Jingliang on the other hand is a hard-hitting welterweight, many remember him as the guy who got humiliated by Chimaev but he’s much more than that. Jingliang has finished eight of his previous opponents. In his most recent outing, ‘The Leach’ managed to beat Muslim Salikhov in the second round via TKO. He says that Ferguson is a “bigger name and tougher opponent” that he’s pleased to face.