The rumors circulated because of the tweet and an Instagram post by Tony Ferguson himself saying it is time to muscle up on Twitter and on Instagram post with a caption that says “Time to put on some serious muscle. 170lbs —>195lbs”. He is urely saying that he is to gain weight.

To me this is a logical move for him as he is not fortunate enough to fight for the title with numerous cancelled fights scheduled against Khabib Nurmagomedov. And with the lightweight champ right now, serving suspension then an interim title fight between Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier will most likely derail a fight against Nurmagomedov. An interim title winner will most likely face the champion next. Si, what's left is a move up to welterweight where a number of contenders are very much willing to fight him. This way he might get a chance for a title fight showdown in a much shorter time.

Tony Ferguson is also not a stranger to this weight division as he won the Ultimate Fighter on this weight class. He is a big lightweight and you may say that he still packs a lot of power even as a welterweight, his conditioning would most likely be better on this weight class as this would not entail too much weight cutting for him.

Immediately after it came out there are a number of possible are being pitied against him by fans. One name that came out the most is Robbie Lawler; Lawler is very much willing to face up anybody and a striking match up with Tony Ferguson would be very exciting to watch for the fans to miss it. The 2nd most popular name of a candidate to come out is Ben Askren, because Ben Askren is a normal welterweight and their size does not play as too much discrepancy. Stylistically it would be interesting too, as Tony Ferguson is also a very good wrestler, with respectable defense against takedowns and thrives on scrambling especially when their bodies are already on the ground.

There are of course a lot of other possible good match ups on his way to title contention. Who do you think will Tony Ferguson fight next as a welterweight? Will it be Woodley, Covington, or Till? Or those top two names shared by MMA fans on social media lately? Share us your thoughts below.