The Morning Glory: Ferguson out of UFC Tampa, Cerrone front runner to replace

Tony Ferguson announced via twitter yesterday that he would be not be fighting at UFC Tampa due to an injury sustained during his training camp.

The match up with Khabib Nurmagomedov was widely anticipated with the victor likely to be take the number one contender spot in the lightweight division.

There has been no shortage of fighters putting their hand up to fight Nurmagomedov on April 16 including the current lightweight champ, Rafael dos Anjos and perennial stand in – Donald Cerrone.

It is believed that Cerrone is the front runner to get the call up however he will only accept the invitation if he receives assurance that his fight with Patrick Cote will still go ahead on the 18th June, per Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting.

Not done yet, but sources are saying this AM that Cerrone is atop the leaderboard to fight Nurmagomedov on 4/16 in TB. Fight would be @ 170.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 6, 2016

I’m told Cerrone wants assurance that if he takes this fight against Khabib that he still gets to fight @patrick_cote 6/18. He wants both.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 6, 2016

The UFC announced this week that The Ultimate Fighter 24 will introduce some fresh blood to the flyweight division with the winner to get a title shot at the show’s live finale.

Try outs will take place at the Palace Station Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas on April 25th 2016 and will include 125lb fighters aged between 21 and 34 who have  at least three pro fights to their name. No current UFC fighters will serve as head coaches this season however the UFC has confirmed that there will be world-class coaches, guest coaches and former opponents of the current champion, Demetrious Johnson on the show.

Johnson is currently scheduled to defend his title against Olympic Gold Medallist Henry Cejudo later this month at UFC 197.

Three years ago today a young upstart from Dublin, Ireland made his UFC debut.

Conor McGregor took to twitter this morning to remind the UFC roster that he hasn’t received a simple thank you for all his hard work.

3 years ago today, I began my crusade to take all you bums from 5 figure paydays to multi seven figure paydays.
And not even a thank you.

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 6, 2016

Jon Jones will get his day in court. The former UFC light heavyweight champ has a traffic trial scheduled for May 11 at 2pm as reported by Marc Raimondi at MMA Fighting.

Jones is pleading not guilty to five charges including drag racing, exhibition driving, failure to maintain a traffic lane and use of a modified exhaust system. Jones’ lawyers are maintaining they believe he was racially profiled and that the charges are “bogus.”

Thankfully for Jones the trial date doesn’t interfere with his scheduled fight at UFC 197 with late replacement Ovince Saint Preux.

In case you missed it, here’s the latest episode of “Looking for a fight.” Dana, Matt and Nick the Tooth travel to Minnesota to check out a local heavyweight and they were not disappointed.