Tony Ferguson urged to accept fight against former rival by Khabib Nurmagomedov's manager

Tony Ferguson is the kind of fighter who, despite losing eight fights in a row, still gets called out by men he already beat. After parting ways with the UFC, where he experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, 'El Cucuy' signed with newly-minted promotion, Global Fight League.

GFL signed a handful of former UFC champions and fighters, including Tyron Woodley, Anthony Pettis, Junior Dos Santos, and former Tony Ferguson opponent Kevin Lee.

Ferguson and Lee faced each other at UC 216 in October 2017 for the interim UFC lightweight title. 'El Cucuy' marvelously submitted 'The Motown Phenom' with a slick triangle choke in the third round, winning his first and only UFC gold to date.

Fast forward eight years later, the two once again find each other in the same promotion, with Lee throwing down the gauntlet on X:

"Aye @TonyFergusonXT imma need that. Sign the line let’s have a talk"

Khabib Nurmagomedov's manager, industry stalwart Ali Abdelaziz, replied to the post, urging Tony Ferguson to sign the dotted line:

"Let’s go Tony"

There's no reply yet from Tony Ferguson. However, if we know 'El Cucuy', he's the type of man who never backs down from a fight.

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Tony Ferguson's former opponent, Kevin Lee, still looking to get back to the UFC

It seems Kevin Lee plans to use a win over Tony Ferguson as a propeller to launch him back into the UFC.

In a past interview with Ariel Helwani, 'The Motown Phenom' was quite transparent in his intentions to get back into the world's premiere MMA organization. So much so that he's willing to go down the rookie route once again and enter the UFC like a complete unknown. This level of willingness to go through the wire showcases Lee's humility to prove himself again.

Lee said:

“I really want to compete, I said I’d take that fight for $5k on Contender Series, and I’ll fight the best contender that they feel they got out there. They weren’t interested in that. Why? I don’t know. I didn’t have much conversation with the UFC besides [matchmaker] Sean Shelby, and he said he wasn’t really interested in doing something like that.

If Ferguson vs Lee II gets booked under the GFL banner, it might produce enough buzz for the UFC to take notice. However, if Lee was willing to face young lions at DWCS to get into the UFC, perhaps fighting a 40-year-old legend on an eight-fight losing streak wouldn't make a good enough case for him.