Tony Ferguson will not be the backup fighter for UFC 242.
The UFC has been known to do backup fighters as of late. At UFC 228, Kamaru Usman was the backup for Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till. Then, at UFC 240, Alexander Volkanovski was the backup fighter for Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar.
Why Tony Ferguson will not be the backup fighter is simple.
“I would love to go, (but) first of all I’m not [a] backup for anybody,” Ferguson said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (h/t BJPENN.com). “I’ve got twelve fights in a row dude, f*** that. They were talking about something, I was kinda interested but at the end of the day, I’m not here to be a backup.
“Like I said, I have a belt, I won twelve in a row. The next fight that I have is for the belt. It’s going to have to have a lot of build-up, especially for the fans. It’s got to have the hype man. It deserves a full camp and lead up time, you know what I’m talking about.”
In the end, Ferguson knows he deserves the next title shot and does not need to be a backup fighter to anybody.
“At the end of the day I’ve done this already,” he said. “I’ve fought for my title, I deserve more than that.”
