Tony Ferguson: UFC champ Rafael dos Anjos 'doesn't want to fight me right now'

SAN DIEGO – With five straight wins, Tony Ferguson is learning how to loosen things up inside the octagon – and he believes it’s paying dividends.

“It used to take me a second to get hit, and then you’d see a different Tony Ferguson in a fight,” Ferguson said on Monday. “No longer. I don’t have anyone smacking me in the face (to get me motivated). I don’t need that. My coaches tell me, ‘Smile, Tony.’ The more loose you are, the better you are – and that jab just hits them in the face harder.”

On Wednesday, Ferguson (18-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will turn that looseness the direction of Josh Thomson (20-7 MMA, 3-3 UFC) in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 71, which takes place at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego. After a preliminary card on UFC Fight Pass, the rest of the prelims and the main card air on FOX Sports 1.

Ferguson, the Season 13 winner of “The Ultimate Fighter,” has four stoppage wins in his current five-fight streak. He has but one loss in the UFC – a decision setback against Michael Johnson more than three years ago. But he’s been on a complete turnaround since then.

He submitted Mike Rio at UFC 166, then knocked out Katsunori Kikuno at UFC 173. A split-decision win over Danny Castillo at UFC 177 then led to back-to-back rear-naked choke wins over Abel Trujillo and Gleison Tibau at UFC 181 and UFC 184, respectively.

Now the Californian is back in a co-main event slot looking to continue a pace that could put him into the title mix alongside names like Donald Cerrone, chasing new champ Rafael dos Anjos.

But Ferguson believes RDA wouldn’t want a piece of him at this point in his progression.

“The champ’s seen me fight. He’s seen me move. He doesn’t want to fight me right now,” Ferguson said. “Right now, he’s cool – he earned his title; he did kick Anthony Pettis’ butt. But right now, my opponent is Josh Thomson. That’s who I’m prepared for. And Thomson is scared. I’m a little nervous, myself, which is good, because you don’t want to go in there overconfident. You can; it’s fine. But when I go in there with little butterflies in my stomach, I turn that into energy – a good energy.”

Check out the video above to hear more from Ferguson about his fight against Thomson ahead of UFC Fight Night 71.

And for more on UFC Fight Night 71, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.