Tony Ferguson drops out of UFC lightweight rankings after more than seven years

Tony Ferguson is no longer ranked in the official UFC lightweight standings.

Ferguson, 38, a former interim lightweight champion, has fallen out of the rankings for the first time in more than seven years. He was replaced by Drew Dober, who scored a bonus-winning knockout of Bobby Green this past Saturday at UFC Fight Night 216.

Ferguson entered the UFC lightweight rankings coming off a submission win over Gleison Tibau on Feb. 28, 2015. He was No. 11 before his ensuing fight with Josh Thomson, which Ferguson won by unanimous decision, later that year.

The victory over Thomson was his sixth in a row of what would become a 12-fight winning streak – including a 2017 interim lightweight title win over Kevin Lee – that was snapped on May 9, 2020 when he lost by fifth-round TKO to Justin Gaethje in his second interim title fight.

It’s been downhill for Ferguson (25-8 MMA, 15-6 UFC) since then as he’s currently on a five-fight losing streak. He lost one-sided unanimous decisions to top lightweight contenders Charles Oliveira (prior to his title win) and Beneil Dariush before suffering a brutal front-kick knockout in his UFC 274 fight with former 155-pound title challenger Michael Chandler.

In his most recent appearance this past September at UFC 279, Ferguson was seeking new life by moving back up to welterweight, but he was submitted by Nate Diaz in the headliner.

Ferguson, the Season 13 winner of “The Ultimate Fighter,” was once considered the biggest threat to undefeated former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Despite enduring the roughest patch of his career, Ferguson insists he’s not done fighting.