Tony Ferguson Says Conor McGregor Is A Paper Champion; Wants To Coach TUF

Tony Ferguson is the #2 ranked lightweight in the division, the lightweight champion is Conor McGregor, whom Ferguson believes isn’t a real champion, but a paper champion.

"This guy's picking his opponents. He's a paper champ. When you're doing that, of course you're going to be watching who you're fighting…I can't really see Conor as the champion. I see right now as if the title was open. Conor's taking a step off and I don't even like to throw his name in because the dude fought one person at 155. I've been sitting here and Khabib, he's been kind of inactive. I've been the most active in this damn place… I'm racking up points here, that's all that matters. I'm gonna go down in the books as a living legend. That's what's gonna happen, I'm gonna be in the UFC Hall of Fame,” Ferguson said the Submission Radio.

Ferguson also has his eyes set on Khabib Nurmagomedov, who he would like to coach opposite on the UFC Ultimate Fighter and then battle for an interim lightweight title.

"It's what the fans want. The fans want the fight. People are blowing it up. They know Conor's out. They know Khabib needs a fight. They know that Khabib and I were supposed to fight in January but that dude backed out. He had some boo boos he had to take care of. That's okay, go back to AKA and heal your boo boos with Daniel Cormier…I'm ready to sign on the dotted line and I think the UFC knows that. And I think it needs to be for that belt. I don't think, it needs to be for that belt, damn it. Straight up, I've been putting in my time, I've been putting in my numbers. This is my time. Let's get some heat going for this thing. Let's do this for The Ultimate Fighter. We can do Team Khabib versus Team Ferguson, that'd be dope. Let's just throw it up for an interim belt. If he's gonna take a step out for a while then they need to throw an interim belt out there, have a champ out there and when he comes back he can be ready for that ass whooping which will be me,” says Ferguson.

Nurmagomedov hasn’t fought since he defeated Michael Johnson at UFC 205, while Ferguson hasn’t competed since defeating Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC Fight Night 98.