LAS VEGAS – Not yet an hour after winning the biggest fight of his career, on the biggest stage, Tony Ferguson was ready to start thinking about who’s next.
Ferguson knocked out Ramsey Nijem in the first round to win the Season 13 title of “The Ultimate Fighter.” And with his new trophy in front of him, a few minutes after learning he would get an extra $40,000 for his Knockout of the Night, Ferguson said he wants to face TUF 7 champion Amir Sadollah.
“I saw Amir Sadollah, and I know that he was a pretty big guy from ‘The Ultimate Fighter,'” Ferguson said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I think that would be a pretty good little start, right there.”
But Ferguson, though just one fight into his UFC career, got the next part down pat when he said he would fight whomever the UFC wants.
“It doesn’t matter who you put in front of me,” Ferguson said. “I have great coaches and I’m going to be ready for any kind of fight. It took me a bit to get used to being in front of everybody, but I think I belong here – and I’ve got the trophy now to prove it.”
Ferguson was part of Brock Lesnar’s team on this season of TUF, and after the show finished taping, Lesnar invited Ferguson to his DeathClutch camp in Minnesota to train.
Ferguson said his plan was to utilize takedowns to control the pace of the fight – so even he may have been surprised with his knockout bomb.
“I knew he was expecting me to go for a takedown on him. That’s what we were practicing,” Ferguson said. “I’ve always had hands, but I kind of forgot that I was a wrestler. As you saw on my first fight in the house, I got taken down twice. I knew he was going to put a lot of pressure on me, so I took that inside. I had my takedowns to try and slow it down a little more. He caught me a couple times and I had to shake it off.”
Nijem, too, was taken by surprise with the knockout punch.
“I was ready to take the fight wherever I needed to and felt very prepared for it,” Nijem said. “That shot caught me completely off guard – I didn’t see it coming. If he didn’t land that, then who knows what would have happened. I was starting to rush things and I got myself in trouble, and it gave Tony the opportunity he needed to get the win.”
Ferguson (11-2, 1-0 UFC) said despite the ability to make lightweight, and a willingness to do so, his preference would be to stay at welterweight.
“Lightweight is in my future,” Ferguson said. “Wherever Dana wants me to fight. I wrestled in college at 165. But I’m comfortable where I’m at right now. I like food. I like eating. I could see myself going to lightweight, but I love welterweight.”