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Tony Ferguson, Justin Gaethje Make Weight Ahead of UFC 249 Title Fight
May 8, 2020
Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje both made weight Friday ahead of their clash for the interim lightweight title at UFC 249 on Saturday.
According to ESPN's Marc Raimondi, both Ferguson and Gaethje weighed in at 155 pounds in Jacksonville, Florida, which is where UFC 249 will take place.
The event is set to be held at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena with no fans in attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic. UFC 249 will mark the first event from the organization since UFC Fight Night: Lee vs. Oliveira on March 14 in Brazil.
Ferguson and Gaethje had been scheduled to headline UFC 249 on April 18, but the event was postponed after UFC President Dana White said he was told to "stand down" by ESPN.
The fight is a replacement for the originally scheduled bout of Ferguson vs. UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who has been unable to travel outside of Dagestan, Russia, due to travel bans brought on by COVID-19.
With Khabib unable to fight currently, the winner of Ferguson vs. Gaethje will go on to face him at a later date to determine the UFC Lightweight champion.
The 36-year-old Ferguson is the No. 1 contender for the title. He owns a career professional record of 25-3 with 12 wins by way of knockout and eight by submission. He is on a 12-fight winning streak, with his last two victories coming over Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone and Anthony Pettis.
Gaethje, 31, is the fourth-ranked lightweight and owns a career record of 21-2 with 18 of those victories coming by knockout. Gaethje lost two fights in a row to Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier in 2017 and 2018 but has since bounced back to win three straight, including a knockout victory over Cerrone in September 2019.
Other major fights scheduled for UFC 249 include Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz for the UFC Bantamweight title, a heavyweight title eliminator between Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruik and a featherweight contest between Jeremy Stephens and Calvin Kattar.
Cejudo, Cruz, Ngannou, Rozenstruik and Kattar all made weight, but Stephens came in overweight, which could put his fight against Kattar in jeopardy.