Tony Ferguson wants to make it clear that interim title bouts have a purpose.
On Oct. 7, Ferguson will take on Kevin Lee inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout will be contested for the interim Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight title. It’ll headline the UFC 216 card.
Speaking to the media, “El Cucuy” responded to lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s desire to fight Nate Diaz for a third time (via MMAJunkie.com):
“The next fight for Conor should be whoever wins this interim lightweight title. If it’s myself or Kevin Lee, that (expletive) needs to defend or vacate, and he needs to unify that belt. Anything else, as far as him trying to fight Nate, the (expletive) rankings and everything else that the UFC stands for, goes out the window, man. I mean, really? You have rankings for a reason. You have an interim belt for a reason – that’s so you can unify the thing.”
