Former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje were supposed to fight tonight for the vacant UFC Interim Lightweight Title in the main event of UFC 249, but UFC President Dana White was asked to stand down by ESPN and Disney, which caused the event to be canceled.
Ferguson still cut weight for the canceled event and came in at 155 pounds, with Ferguson saying he did the weight cut because “it just made sense.”
“It just made sense, man,” Ferguson said to James Lynch of The Score (via Cole Shelton of BJPenn.com). “It was just another reason to get ready, it gives some people something to talk about. There’s nothing going on in sports. I could either just roll out of bed, or I could actually do this for my team. [The fight] didn’t go down, but mentally, it made sense to me to make sure that I moved forward with my weight, with my word. So that way I knew I could do it again and again and again.”
Gaethje and Ferguson will still do battle on the rescheduled UFC 249 card, which is set for May 9 at an undisclosed location.
The former interim lightweight champion admits that he spoke with a nutritionist before cutting weight for the canceled card.
“I found it a little bit struggling at first, because I thought I would have the fight week and everything else to go with it,” Ferguson said. “And then when you hear the news that the fight week is canceled, you’re like, ‘Oh no.’ Then you have to make weight a certain day and it’s kind of uncertain. But I talked to my nutritionist and it was reassuring, because we’ve been through this many, many times. I was trained very well in the weight cut. I’ve been cutting weight since I was little for wrestling. I know it like a textbook.”
UFC 249 takes place on Saturday, May 9 from an undisclosed location with Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
