Barboza eyeing rematch, interim lightweight title bout vs. Ferguson
Edson Barboza is looking to kill two birds with one stone.
Fresh off the Knockout of the Year candidate he scored at Beneil Dariush's expense earlier this month, the fifth-ranked lightweight has set his sights on an interim title fight against the last man to have beaten him: Tony Ferguson.
"I want to have the opportunity to fight someone who is ahead of me in the rankings or fight for the interim belt," Barboza recently told AG. Fight, according to FloCombat. "I don't know what the UFC will do about Khabib (Nurmagomedov) now, but Ferguson is there to fight. So I'm ready to fight Ferguson. It would be great to get an opportunity to have this rematch against him - that's on my mind now."
Barboza filled in for an injured Nurmagomedov on short notice before tapping to "El Cucuy" in December 2015, but has since mounted a three-fight win streak over former champ Anthony Pettis, Gilbert Melendez, and now, Dariush, while Ferguson recently saw his third booking opposite Nurmagomedov fall through hours before UFC 209 due to issues with the Russian's weight cut.
The ill-fated bout would have determined the promotion's interim lightweight champ, and with Ferguson and Nurmagomedov's rivalry seemingly destined to elude the Octagon in perpetuity, Barboza aims to claim his first taste of UFC gold and avenge one of just four losses he's been handed in over six years with the promotion.
The Brazilian had just under a month to prepare for a veritable wild man in Ferguson, but maintains a potential rematch would unfold much differently than their first meeting, thanks to the benefits of a full training camp.
"The main thing is that it would be a whole camp. The first time I fought against him, it was only four weeks of training. It's no excuse, ever, but he hit me with a kick there that shook me a little. The only thing I would do differently (in a rematch against Ferguson) would be to have a one-on-one camp, my nine or ten weeks of training. I think that would make a difference."
Ferguson, on the other hand, has set his sights on Nate Diaz, who's channeled his inner Howard Hughes and been inactive since dropping his rematch with Conor McGregor last August.