Tony Ferguson's 5 best UFC fights

#5 vs. Kevin Lee – UFC 216 – 10/07/2017

Ferguson came from behind to beat Kevin Lee to win UFC gold in 2017

Almost a full year passed following Ferguson’s win over Dos Anjos – unsurprisingly, the UFC’s attempt to make the Nurmagomedov fight failed again in March, as Khabib failed to make weight and had to withdraw.

It was clear that Ferguson deserved a title shot though, and so with Khabib on the shelf and champion Conor McGregor off fighting Floyd Mayweather, the UFC matched ‘El Cucuy’ with fast-rising contender Kevin Lee to crown an Interim champion instead.

The fight took place at UFC 216, and amazingly, it almost turned into a nightmare scenario for Ferguson.

Despite Lee almost missing weight and looking downright unhealthy coming into the Octagon, he actually started the fight as the stronger man.

After some striking exchanges saw both men land with heavy shots and both men look stunned, Lee managed to take top position after a scramble.

From there, ‘The Motown Phenom’ managed to take full mount, where he destroyed Ferguson with a series of elbows and punches. It looked like the fight was over, but somehow Ferguson held on and was essentially saved by the buzzer.

But that was seemingly all Lee had in his tank. By the time the second round began, Ferguson somehow looked fully recovered while it was Lee who was sucking in wind.

‘El Cucuy’ took over the fight with his striking game in that round, and going into the third it seemed like only one man was destined to pick up the victory.

Sure enough, despite Lee securing a takedown early on, he never looked comfortable from the top, and Ferguson – for probably the first time since a controversial 2014 win over Danny Castillo – showed how tricky he could be from the bottom position, as he caught Lee in a triangle choke and forced him to submit.

With the win, Ferguson had finally captured UFC gold in one of his toughest challenges to date – one of the only fights in the UFC where he’d really come close to actually losing. He hasn’t fought since – but with a win over Pettis at UFC 229, he should be in for another shot at UFC glory soon.