Tony Ferguson's eight-fight win streak is the longest current active win streak in the UFC lightweight division, though it nearly reached an unlikely end when Ferguson faced UFC newcomer Lando Vannata in July.

Vannata, a late replacement for Michael Chiesa at UFC Fight Night 91, dropped Ferguson with strikes several times early in the fight, coming inches away from upsetting one of the world's best at 155 pounds in his promotional debut. And while Ferguson managed to rally to submit Vannata in the second round, on a recent episode of The MMA Hour "El Cucuy" explained where things very nearly went wrong.

"I tried to straight out just box him, like, right handed, instead of just (making it) a funky Tony Ferguson fight," Ferguson said. "I went in there, I fought him, I relied on my jab, and I basically just didn't want to hurt the kid. He's a young kid. I went in there and didn't really look at him like an Edson Barboza or Khabib fight. I prepared for him like any other UFC fighter would, and he was tricky. The kid had good movement.

"You can't take anything from the kid. He trained hard, and the guys over at Jackson-Wink prepared this kid for a very long time, so he was sharp. Preparing for a short-notice fight is dangerous, it doesn't even matter who you are preparing for. Short-notice fights suck. I've been that guy who just came in and wrecked house, so I know that for a fact. So like I said, props to Landon but we didn't prepare for a stand-up fight, man. We prepared that as soon as I grabbed somebody, I was going to choke them out. Choking necks, cashing checks."

Ferguson ultimately bounced back from his rough start to latch onto Vannata's neck and put the 24-year-old away with a second-round D'arce choke, a trademark finish of Ferguson's that he currently holds the UFC record for with three. And although he had to battle back from the brink of defeat to secure that record, Ferguson said he was unworried by the events of the opening round against Vannata once he calmed himself down between rounds.

"F*ck no, I was teaching this kid a lesson the second round," Ferguson said. "He didn't touch me in second round. He pissed me off, dude. I went in there the first round, I was going to put him away nice and soft. No. Boom, he hit me good. I slipped a couple times. If you guys go back and watch it, no excuses, that Metro PCS sign (on the canvas) sucks. I hate it. It's slippery as hell. It's stupid, take that sh*t out of there. I love Metro PCS, I swear, but they need to fix that sign. It's slippery as heck. I slipped a couple times on the mat and you can watch the punches fly by my head, and I actually only take like one solid uppercut shot and I actually granby'd out because I knew what was coming next, which is that right cross and a couple other ones.

"As soon as I get to that position I was like, look, this kid has absolutely zero jiu-jitsu. I could feel it. I was like, nope. His scrambles were good, but no jiu-jitsu. I was like, we need to get back to business. Coach gets me in the second round, he looks at me, he's like, ‘get you sh*t together, man!' And I'm like, I know! Alright! Then I'm like, alright cool, I get my sh*t together and I'm like alright, I start working to get some other stuff, I start being fluid, and I start doing more Tony stuff. As soon as I snagged his neck, it was over, man."

While a roller-coaster win over a UFC rookie didn't do much to help Ferguson's case for a lightweight title shot, it certainly didn't hurt either.

Ferguson's torrid streak has propelled him to the top of the division, as he currently sits at No. 3 on the UFC's media-generated rankings. He'll now look to test himself against Rafael dos Anjos, a former UFC champion and one of the only men ranked above him, when the two collide on Nov. 5 at UFC Fight Night 98 in Mexico City.

And for Ferguson, the match-up is the next best thing behind a title shot.

"I want to test my skills up against somebody who had the belt," Ferguson said. "I think this is where my skillsets are at. I'm an Ultimate Fighter winner at 170. At 155, I'm always proving myself. I have nothing to prove to any of the fans, but to myself, it's my skillset. I want to make sure I'm the sh*t, the man, the cheese, the heavy D, the guy who's the man at 155 pounds when I'm there. I'm not leaving. It's not going to be like the belt is going to flop around one or two fights. The belt hasn't been held for three fights in a row or something like that, so when I get there, I want it to be the hardest fight that you could ever have, or the man who's supposed to be the fight's fight.

"If RDA is that fight, then this is considered a title fight. I'm looking at this as a title fight, so he better. I'm not going to rob Khabib of an ass-whooping either, so if he has the belt or Eddie Alvarez, it doesn't matter, man. These are three great fighters. I'm blessed to be able to be here in this position and I'm not going to waste it. I think this is a great opportunity for the fans to see a little bit more of my skills, and that's it."

In dos Anjos, Ferguson meets one of the only men whose recent lightweight résumé stands up to his own.

Ferguson is 11-1 in the UFC with a myriad of finishes over high-level opponents, while dos Anjos holds a 10-2 record since 2012, also buoyed by several finishes over big-name foes. But dos Anjos has also lost six times total under the UFC umbrella, and Ferguson is confident he knows the recipe to success against the Brazilian.

"There's already blueprints, man," Ferguson said. "You put the pressure on this guy. You test his conditioning. You test the cardio. You test the heart, the will. That's how you beat RDA. Anything else, you want to try to knock him out, you try to set your focus on one little thing, it ain't going to happen. It's going to take precision and good power that's going to put away this guy, and I have both."