the last man to defeat Ferguson before he went on his legendary 12-fight win streak<\/a>, isn\u2019t so much a fan of Ferguson\u2019s boxing debut, but nevertheless, he\u2019s still pulling for his former foe to win.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ll always root for Tony Ferguson,\u201d Johnson told Bloody Elbow at the UFC 318 post-fight press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you shared fifteen minutes in a cage, you kinda have that bond between these guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like that he\u2019s going the content route and fighting these people and giving them, like, a spotlight to kind of shine,\u201d Johnson said of Ferguson boxing Salt Papi.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could put himself in jeopardy. If he loses to this guy, it\u2019s bad\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he wins, it\u2019s like, you beat some content guy,\u201d Johnson added.<\/p>\n
Salt Papi is 6-2 as an influencer-boxer, with one of his losses coming to former Bellator lightweight fighter Anthony \u2018Pretty Boy\u2019 Taylor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, we\u2019re in a position where it\u2019s all about money at this point, he\u2019s probably just trying to take care of his family. So, I\u2019m in for that,\u201d Johnson said of why Ferguson is fighting at 41.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Michael Johnson says he\u2019d like to box in the future<\/p>\n
More than a decade since he outboxed Ferguson in the UFC Octagon, we asked Johnson if he\u2019d consider fighting anywhere else after leaving UFC 318 with a winning record.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see. I still have some time to think about it,\u201d Johnson said on if his last fight will be in the UFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut once I set up, I got in the UFC and I told them, you guys aren\u2019t getting rid of me. I\u2019m gonna leave on my own accord.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would definitely like to box later down the road,\u201d Johnson revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut right now, I\u2019m here for the UFC and I\u2019m still chasing this title,\u201d the 39-year-old said.<\/p>\n
Johnson has now won three straight fights over the likes of Darrius Flowers, Ottman Azaitar, and Daniel Zellhuber<\/a>. This is Johnson\u2019s best win streak in a decade.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Johnson has weighed in on Tony Ferguson\u2019s upcoming boxing debut. Longtime UFC lightweight Johnson is still winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,8209,8210,101,8211,715,8212,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-12480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-michael-johnson","tag-salt-papi","tag-sports","tag-tony-ferguson","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-318","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Tony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-143832559-1024x725.jpg\")
Photo by Josh Hedges\/Zuffa LLC\/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesMichael Johnson on Tony Ferguson fighting Salt Papi: \u2018If he loses to this guy, it\u2019s bad\u2019<\/p>\n