Conor who? Tony Ferguson wants a fight with Georges St-Pierre, not McGregor

If Tony Ferguson is able to defeat Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223, a fight with Conor McGregor would seem to be the next logical move.

But it’s not necessarily the fight in which he’s most interested.

“Conor who?” Ferguson asked the media today in Los Angeles. “I mean, the guy’s not in the picture. Straight up. I mean, bless his heart. He’s made his money. He’s doing his thing. He’s got an education for his kid. That’s what we all want, right?”

Ferguson and Nurmagomedov meet in the main event of UFC 223, which takes place April 7 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“El Cucuy” already holds the promotion’s interim lightweight title, but the undisputed belt – the one currently owned by McGregor but not defended since he claimed it in November 2016 – will be on the line at UFC 223.

McGregor has hinted at a UFC return later this year following an extended layoff with his blockbuster boxing match (and incredibly lucrative payday) with Floyd Mayweather.

But Ferguson isn’t necessarily sold on the idea that McGregor will want to return and reclaim the belt. With tens of millions of dollars in the bank, why would he, Ferguson asks?

“Conor, he’s influenced a lot of fighters,” Ferguson said. “That’s cool, man. That’s dope. But it’s taken a lot of work to get there. Not just (talking). It’s taken work. You had to earn it. …. With that much loot, what are you going to do now? Are you going to go back to a sport where you have to bleed? No. Take care of yourself, man. Really, go do your thing.

“If you have to hype it up, and you want to come back because that’s the sport and the athlete in you – the guy that I met at Paradigm Sports when I shook his hand and I said, ‘You better stay at 145 because at ’55, we’re going to have problems,’ he’s nowhere to be found. Straight up. So, if he wants to come back, that’s great. But my concern is not him – it’s the next person in line.”

There’s not really a clear No. 1 contender ready to challenge the Ferguson-Nurmagomedov winner, so the next person in line could be any of a handful of athletes. And while Ferguson says he’s certainly not looking past the challenge at hand, if he was give a chance to pick anyone in the UFC for his next fight, he’d move up to 170 pounds and take on former champ Georges St-Pierre.

“GSP,” Ferguson said. “I mean, that’s what I signed up for in the beginning. I was 170 pounds; 155 was forced on me. One hundred and seventy pounds, where I have 12 fights.”

Ferguson started his career at 170 pounds and even won “The Ultimate Fighter 13” competing in that division, so a return to the weightclass certainly isn’t far-fetched. He believes St-Pierre would be a big-money fight, and Ferguson also believes the former champ is prime for the picking.

“A GSP match, I mean really, he wants a money fight, but he’s an athlete,” Ferguson said. “We all have to pay bills. You’ve got to pay your taxes. … Pay attention because when you’re not doing it and you’re not paying attention and you’re going on just fighting for money fights, you’re forgetting, and (the belt) starts losing its luster. It becomes tarnished.”

To hear more from Ferguson, check out the video above. Or click below for the full interview.