Ferguson's next fight booked, 'probably' against Poirier - White

Las Vegas, August 23: Tony Ferguson's next fight has been booked and is "probably" against Dustin Poirier, UFC president Dana White said.

Ferguson lost the interim lightweight belt to Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 in May, taking plenty of punishment and suffering a broken eye socket.

But the 36-year-old appears keen to quickly get back in the Octagon and has hinted at a return on social media, posting on Twitter earlier this week: "Lightweight Division On Notice."

White has now confirmed Ferguson has agreed to fight again.

"We do [have a fight lined up]," said the UFC chief, who was then asked if it would be with Poirier. He replied: "Probably."

Poirier is also a former interim champion, losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov last September.

“Just Warmin’🍃Up” 🥇 Lightweight Division On Notice. # Road2Gold ⚔️🕶 -CSO- 🇺🇸🏆🇲🇽 @rdx_sports #teamrdx 🇺🇸🏆🇲🇽 🎼Composure 🎶🎶🎶 pic.twitter.com/I514AYQktm

— Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) August 18, 2020

White was speaking after Saturday's event, where Frankie Edgar made his bantamweight debut and beat fifth-ranked Pedro Munhoz.

Edgar - a former lightweight champion who lost a featherwight title fight to Max Holloway last year - is now a contender, says White, although he will have to wait for his shot at the championship.

Indeed, White confirmed bantamweight king Petr Yan's next challenger would be Aljamain Sterling.

"Obviously there's some things that have to play out and there's people ahead of [Edgar]," he said.

"He put on a good showing and put himself in a good position, but he's got some work to do. Two or one [more fight], I don't know - it depends on who he fights next."