Despite Tony Ferguson's fight against Justin Gaethje no longer happening on April 18 as it was originally scheduled to, that didn't stop him from still making weight today as if it were. Now currently rescheduled to May 9 instead of its original date, Ferugson believes that his focus on still making weight has kept in zoned in on the fight, if it continues as planned. Ferguson took to Instagram to share his final weight of 155 pounds.
"It wasn’t just for me, man,” Ferguson told ESPN. “It was for my team and my sponsors and obviously my family. It was just a commitment to myself to follow through with my weight cut. We were supposed to have a fight here. Obviously Khabib [Nurmagomedov] … didn’t make the fight. Justin Gaethje filled in. To me, it just made f*cking sense, man. It is what it is."
Ferguson was initially set to face Khabib Nurmagomedov for UFC 249, however the travel bans that Russia had in place made it unlikely for Khabib to make the fight even before the United States started closing its borders. The fight was changed for Ferguson to face Justin Gaethje because they are both from the United States so travel wouldn't be an issue, but Ferguson isn't sure if Gaethje will continue to follow through with it.
"I don’t know if Justin Gaethje is down to take the fight or not,” Ferguson said regarding the fight. “I don’t know what’s going on with the fight. We knew we were going to make weight Friday."
This is obviously not the only UFC match that has been affected by the rapid spread of COVID-19 over the past few weeks, with several other fights already canceled as well. There is still no definite timetable on when the UFC will start back up, but Dana White has mentioned the possibility of using the Tachi Palace Casino Resort in California to host events when business resumes.
