The most exciting Lightweight in the UFC is set to return to action next month at UFC 229, but his name isn’t Conor McGregor or Khabib Nurmagomedov. That distinction belongs to former Interim Champion Tony Ferguson, who is set to battle former Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis in a bout that, at best, could go down as one of the most exciting three round fights in UFC history.

To understand Tony Ferguson, one must accept that it is impossible to understand Tony Ferguson. Everything Ferguson does is unorthodox and creative, both inside and outside the cage. When Ferguson does a training camp to prepare for a fight, he has been known to forego high-level MMA gyms to train at his secluded, hand-built training facility at elevation on Big Bear Mountain. His training techniques themselves can seem almost satirical; fans around the world don’t know how to react to videos of Tony practicing elbow strikes on a metal pole, training with sunglasses on, and doing drills and exercises that are hard to even describe.

Tony’s trash talk is equally mystifying (though also captivating) – in the lead-up to his Interim Title fight against a surging Kevin Lee, Feruson claimed to have just gotten out of the "hyperbolic time chamber" (a la Dragon Ball Z), and told Lee that in training, Ferguson had prepared himself to fight a version of Lee that was 100 times larger than he actually is. The normally brash and confident Lee did not seem to know how to reply to that, and frankly, who could blame him. When Ferguson got into a spat with Fabricio Werdum, who of course fights four weight classes above Ferguson at Heavyweight, Ferguson told the former champion and jiu jitsu black belt to "shut up before I ankle pick you."

Ferguson’s unpredictability outside the cage translates into an extremely exciting fighting style inside the cage. It is no exaggeration to say that Ferguson regularly employs techniques that virtually no other fighter has even attempted in UFC history. One would be hard pressed to name another fighter who has used a standing granby roll/somersault to escape a clinch or takedown attempt; yet Ferguson has done so multiple times in the UFC, perhaps most pleasingly in his victory over American Kickboxing Academy’s Josh Thompson.

Ferguson’s creative grappling techniques don’t stop there, of course – he is known to snatch up and snap down opponents in his trademark d’arce choke from almost any position, including from standing (as he did against short-notice replacement opponent Lando Vannata), or from the midst of a chaotic scramble (as he did against top Lightweight Edson Barboza). The Barboza fight in particular showcased many of Tony’s atypical grappling tools, such as his elbows from the bottom of rubber guard, his wickedly fast scrambling, and his use of somersaulting imanari rolls to setup a takedown into a leglock.

On the feet, Tony uses his creativity to relentlessly batter opponents until they are worn down and ready to be finished. Tony is not shy about throwing elbows from any angle, including step-in lead elbows that effectively operate like sharpened uppercuts, or dangerous spinning reverse elbows. Ferguson’s best striking performance in the UFC was probably his dismantling of former champion Rafael Dos Anjos. Ferguson strung together unbelievable combinations, including consecutive spinning attacks and superman punches, en route to a dominant five-round decision. Ferguson fought so fluidly that at one point, he managed to put the normally active pressure fighter Dos Anjos on his back foot just by doing a salsa-style dance towards him, before weaving back into a barrage of strikes.

If there is one criticism of Ferguson’s fight style, it is that his willingness to take wild gambles sometimes leaves him vulnerable to excessive damage. However, Ferguson has demonstrated a resiliency that has more than compensated for this weakness in his career so far. For example, Ferguson was able to recover from a first round knockdown against Lando Vannata to finish him dominantly in the second round. Ferguson also managed to endure heavy ground and pound and escape from bottom mount against the powerful, smothering wrestler Kevin Lee, and submit Lee on the ground with a triangle choke. Many fans have speculated that a boxer with lights-out finishing power would be a tough matchup for Ferguson, which is a shoe that no one fits better than the division’s superstar Conor McGregor.

Ferguson was close to being the man to welcome McGregor back to the UFC, but a stroke of bad luck robbed him of the opportunity to earn that lucrative position. Shortly after McGregor lost his money-grab boxing match against Floyd Mayweather, UFC made an Interim title bout between Ferguson and the aforementioned Kevin Lee. Ferguson’s submission victory notched his 10th consecutive UFC win, which is currently tied with champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for the record for most consecutive wins in UFC Lightweight division history.

Though Ferguson was Interim Champion under undisputed champion McGregor, McGregor was still not ready to return to MMA, and the UFC finally decided that it could not let the division stagnate while McGregor operated on his own schedule. Earlier this year the UFC announced that McGregor would be stripped of his title, and that Ferguson would fight the undefeated Russian wrestling machine Khabib Nurmagomedov for the undisputed title. For dedicated MMA fans, the anticipation for Khabib vs. Ferguson was at a peak. This was in fact the fourth time that UFC had announced the Khabib/Ferguson matchup, but dating back to 2015 each attempt to make the bout had been scrapped due to either injury or weight cutting breakdowns.

While some remained skeptical that the seemingly "cursed" matchup would actually come to fruition, it also seemed that the fourth attempt to schedule the bout was timelier than ever. When Khabib and Ferguson were first matched up in 2015, they were rising stars; now in 2018 they were proven, established elites. And now, the fight between these two elites would have proper stakes – the undisputed UFC Lightweight Championship, and a clear designation as the man to fight McGregor in the Irishman’s eventual return.

Sadly though, the skeptics were proven correct, and the Ferguson/Khabib dream fight was cancelled for a fourth time, as Ferguson severely injured his knee tripping over a cable on set in the UFC on Fox TV studio. Fans would have to wait to see the sport’s best top game fighter face the sport’s most creative scrambler and submission artist. And Ferguson himself would have to wait as well, stripped of his Interim Title, rehabbing an injury while Khabib dominated short notice replacement fighter Al Iaquinta and earned the championship and high-profile McGregor matchup.

The UFC has not totally forgotten Ferguson, though. He is set to fight former champion Anthony Pettis in the co-main event at UFC 229. It stands to reason that if Khabib or Conor should pull out for some reason (which there is unfortunately precedent for in Khabib’s case), Ferguson would slot in as a replacement in the main event. The booking also seems to open up a lane for Ferguson to be featured as a high profile contender for the winner of the main event. Should Khabib win, he will almost certainly be looking to face Ferguson next; he has basically said as much to the media in recent interviews. Should McGregor win, he is of course liable to go in some other direction and fight an old foe such as Max Holloway or Nate Diaz, or perhaps challenge Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley; but his most logical next contender would just the same be Ferguson if Ferguson gets past Pettis.

Getting Past Anthony Pettis is no small feat, though. The fighter nicknamed "Showtime" is similar to Ferguson in many ways; Pettis also uses unorthodox, flashy, athletic techniques, and is also a submission-grappling master. Pettis is now some years removed from his prime of throwing jumping head kicks off the side of the cage and fronting Wheaties boxes, but a recent submission win over Michael Chiesa demonstrated that the former champion is still dangerous from any position.

In some ways it would be a shame to see Tony Ferguson’s 10-fight winning streak end without Ferguson getting a shot at the actual undisputed championship. Should Pettis upset the -325 favorite Ferguson, Ferguson could certainly be called a victim of the circumstances of McGregor’s leaving the sport and holding the undisputed title hostage for a year. Whoever is the winner, it is a safe bet that the co-main event matchup between two of the sport’s most dynamic fighters will be a barn-burner, and may even eclipse the main event and steal the show.