“I look at the likes of Tony Ferguson, I still think he’s a solid fighter”.
Conor McGregor wants to run through every contender in the lightweight division after he takes care of business with Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 next weekend.
McGregor threw Michael Chandler’s name into the mix as well as Nate Diaz and Charles Oliveira, but ‘The Notorious’ is also open to sharing the octagon with former interim lightweight champ Tony Ferguson who, according to Khabib Nurmagomedov, is ‘finished’ following his back-to-back losses to ‘Do Bronx’ and Justin Gaethje.
McGregor doesn’t quite see it that way and believes ‘El Cucuy’ is still a ‘solid fighter’ with one of the most well-rounded skill sets in the division.
“There are many exciting things. I don’t overlook guys that maybe had a little bit of slip in the division also because it happens in this game,” McGregor said in a recent interview with John McCarthy and Josh Thomson of the Weighing In podcast (h/t Abhinav Kini of The Body Lock). “I look at the likes of Tony Ferguson, I still think he’s a solid fighter.
“There’s a lot of things that have gone on between myself and Tony regarding the management situation over the years. I would be open to a Tony Ferguson bout also. And if the other guy [Khabib Nurmagomedov] has the balls to come back and step in, if he stops running away, we are here for that also.”
As far as the other contenders are concerned, McGregor wants to test himself against ‘every single one of them’.
“Every single one of them, John. I’ll go through every single one of them back-to-back,” he said. “And I have no qualms with who it is. I’m happy for [Dan] Hooker and [Michael] Chandler in the co-main event. I know they’re very excited for it, I know they’re both eager to put on a show and make a statement. I’m very excited to see how that bout goes. I wish both men well. If they’re next, they’re next.
“Obviously, you’ve got [Justin] Gaethje and [Charles] Oliveira in the mix as well. They may be competing also, I’m excited about that. I want them all to be honest, John. Every single one of them. I also heard the other day Dana had an interview with The Mac Life and he was saying about Nate Diaz coming back down to 155 pounds. That would be also pretty amazing for us to keep the trilogy at lightweight possibly for a title.”
Check out the full interview below.
