UFC lightweight Tony Ferguson believes the injury he suffered last month that pulled him out of a fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov on April 16 was a "blessing in disguise."

On the surface, that sounds extremely cliché. Ferguson (20-3) is on a seven-fight winning streak, and a win over an undefeated Nurmagomedov would have had him firmly in line for a UFC title shot. From a career standpoint, it was a devastating lost opportunity for Ferguson in a main event.

Where it was a blessing, however, was in his family life. Ferguson and his wife welcomed their firstborn last week. The injury he suffered, accumulation of blood in his lungs, forced him to do literally nothing for weeks. No time in the gym whatsoever. That kind of clean break meant Ferguson put all his focus squarely on the birth of his son -- which he says he is now thankful for.

"It was probably creating a lot more stress on my wife than I would have thought," Ferguson told ESPN.com. "I was mad about missing that fight. I was pissed. All I could do was take that and say to myself, 'That's not important right now. What's important is getting healthy enough to be able to hold your son when he's born.' That was the most powerful thing I got out of all of it."

Ferguson says his son, Armand Anthony, and his wife are doing well. As far as the lung condition that took him out of the fight, he's recovering. His attention is shifting back to the Octagon.

He originally had hoped Nurmagomedov (23-0) would be willing to postpone their fight until May 29 in Las Vegas, but Nurmagomedov opted to fight late replacement opponent Darrell Horcher on April 16. Nurmagomedov, who trains out of American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, won via second-round TKO and said he intends to take the summer off due to Ramadan, a Muslim observance period.

It was announced Sunday that a five-round bout between Ferguson and Michael Chiesa (14-2) will headline UFC Fight Night on July 13 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ferguson spoke to ESPN.com about last month's disappointment and his next fight.

You've called the injury a "blessing in disguise." How about Nurmagomedov's decision to not push that fight back to May 29? Is that a blessing as well given the baby and your recovery from injury, or would you have been ready for that fight?

I would have wanted it. I'm hungry, man. The doctors said if I took a couple weeks off, it would be up to my body telling me if it wanted to go out and compete or not. I hate this. I'm a gamer. I would have been all for it. A couple weeks’ rest was good enough. I felt, after watching Khabib get his victory and say he wanted to take a break, I'm like, “Man, you could have waited a couple weeks.” I know he had a long training camp, but for me, as a fighter, if I had a two-year injury layoff like he did I would have wanted to put the best fight out there. I would have said, “You know what? This is the third time our fight has been scheduled. The fans want to see it. Let's get this done and over with and let the best man come out victorious.”

Do you see it as him avoiding a fight with you? Or do you understand his decision, wanting to stay on that April 16 card?

I could say he's ducking me. I've been to wrestling meets where a guy had an opportunity to wrestle me and suddenly misses weight. I've seen it before and I see it in him. We just happen to be on different timelines. I'm not going to completely say he doesn't want to fight me. We're in the fight game and we have to fight everybody eventually. He does have Ramadan coming up. That's his religion and I have to respect that. But as far as him saying he doesn't have unfinished business with me or that I'm talking crap while I'm injured, I'm looking at him shaking his head because I remember him walking into a UFC press conference [in December 2014] and calling out the champion -- Anthony Pettis -- when Khabib was completely injured. I remember these facts. This guy is ridiculous and our paths will cross someday. The guys at the UFC are going to schedule that again, and I'm going to take his back and choke him out in front of millions of people.

After Nurmagomedov’s win on April 16, he said he wanted to return in the fall to a UFC title fight. Would that bother you, considering he wasn't willing to fight you on May 29?

Maybe he should have been on The Ultimate Fighter. When I was on the show, I fought three times back-to-back-to-back. There were no breaks. If you were injured, you had to hide that. When he beat Rafael dos Anjos [in April 2014], that was years ago. You can't base anything off that. He hasn't fought in two years and now he's off to lick his wounds after a short-notice fight against a project manager. I felt sorry for that guy, having to come in on short notice. Khabib trains with [UFC champions] Daniel Cormier and Luke Rockhold. You would think that training with that kind of energy, he would want to compete again. But he doesn't want to. He can milk it all he wants to. Take that No. 2 ranking because it doesn't mean anything to me. What matters to me is going out there and doing my job.

Once you knew Nurmagomedov was off the table, what did you want next?

I was trying to step in against Nate Diaz [on July 9] but never heard back. He's ranked at lightweight but competing at 170. That's something I really don't understand, people bumping up for catchweights. This is not what the UFC was originally about when I first joined. It wasn't catchweights, people competing only for the money and taking crap. They were in it for the belt.

Chiesa specifically called you out after his last fight, a win against Beneil Dariush on April 16. What are your thoughts on that fight?

You know what? I'm not one to back down from a fight. That's one of the things I'm most proud of. If someone wants to scrap, I'm not backing down. I think it was the wrong move for him to call me out on national TV, because he's going to get it. He's not a project manager, I'll put it that way. He's a real UFC fighter, up-and-coming, and the fans are going to get what they want out of that fight.