Since Conor McGregor won the lightweight title last year at UFC 205, the division has been in a state of tumult. McGregor took an extended hiatus to celebrate the birth of his first child and then took a detour to professional boxing for a money fight with Floyd Mayweather while, the deepest division in the sport became jammed up with a backlog of contenders waiting for their shot at the title. But while McGregor was off making history, Tony Ferguson continued to do the same thing he’d been doing all along, winning fights and calling out “McNugget.” Now after winning the interim lightweight title at UFC 216, it appears that Ferguson’s trash talk might just be getting him somewhere.

Speaking with the Talking Brawls podcast recently, McGregor’s striking coach Owen Roddy suggested that Ferguson had done enough to earn a shot at McGregor and that the hype that has been building around that fight means it is probably “not far off” from happening.

“It’s exciting,” said Roddy. “When the word goes out like that and people start talking about it, it’s usually not far off of the deal being done. It could be a good one. Ferguson is the interim champion and rightfully so. He had a good performance against Lee and he’s had a lot of good performances.

“I’d like to see it. People, including myself, were talking about the Diaz fight, but who knows that may come again. But if it’s Ferguson, that’s going to be a cracker as well. I still see the same outcome. I still see Conor — if they’re standing for any sort of extended period on the feet, it’ll be a quick one and that’s it.

“He’s just not as tidy as Conor. You play the percentages, and Conor’s the cleaner, more refined striker. Ferguson is tough, he’s unorthodox, but in my opinion Conor’s just the superior striker, most definitely.”

The general consensus for a while has been that McGregor’s return to MMA will be a trilogy fight against Nate Diaz, as that’s the most lucrative fight possible to make right now. Ferguson’s impressive stoppage of Kevin Lee muddles those waters as bit as it gives him the historically more meritorious claim to a title shot. On top of that, Diaz appears to be demanding a high price for the trilogy and UFC President Dana White seems invested in the idea of a title unification bout. White has maintained that Ferguson makes the most sense and Roddy agrees, saying that the Ferguson fight is gaining all the momentum and seems like the “logical” way to go right now.

“That’s what Dana White is saying and because Ferguson is picking at Conor and stuff like that, it’s starting to look like the more logical fight, but who knows?

“It’s an exciting fight isn’t it? He definitely brings problems and people are asking for it, that’s the most important thing. . . Obviously, money talks at the end of the day and whatever makes the most money is what both people would go for. But because people are asking for it and posting about it, that’s starting to gain the momentum that’s needed to get that big fight. It’s starting to build. It’ll be a good fight. It’ll definitely be a good fight.”

As for when that fight might happen, that is completely up in the air at this point. White has said that he hopes McGregor will fight before the end of the year, possibly at UFC 219 on Dec. 30 but there has also been talk of McGregor waiting to fight until St. Patrick’s Day in 2018. Roddy says he doesn’t know when the champions return will happen but that it doesn’t matter, either way it’ll be the same result: a McGregor win.

“If Conor wants to go at the end of the year, then we go straight into camp. He came back training last week, and got a couple of sessions in. He’s back in the gym after that whole whirlwind. I think it’d be great to let him get back training and enjoying training and take it from there but at the end of the day, whatever happens, happens. If we go into camp tomorrow, we go into camp tomorrow and we get it done.”

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MUST-READ STORIES

Results. Rachael Ostovich beat Melinda Fabian in the latest episode of TUF.

Suit. Lyman Good is suing supplement companies over tainted products.

USADA. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira flagged by USADA, out of UFC Winnipeg.

185. Heather Hardy confronted by former foe at Bellator weigh-ins.

Earned. Artem Lobov thinks Tony Ferguson has earned his shot at Conor McGregor.

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VIDEO STEW

Cerrone and Till pre-fight interview highlights.

Lyman Good suing supplement company.

Highlights from one of the main eventers.

That’s cleared up.

Piling on.

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LISTEN UP

Press Row. Discussing GSP’s return and the future of Canadian MMA.

The MMA Vivisection. Breaking down all the fights from UFC Gdansk.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Nog’s statement.

Darren Till had a good weight cut it seems.

Wow. Congrats.

Bisping will never stop.

Strange but fun fight.

This dude is fighting this weekend and he’s not even supposed to be a striker.

Gamebred.

Guess it works out that the UFC killed his XBox deal.

Awesome.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ovince Saint Preux (21-10) vs. Corey Anderson (9-3); UFC 217, Nov. 4.

Adriano Moraes (16-2) vs. Danny Kingad (7-0); ONE Championship, Nov. 10.

Alex Caceres (13-10) vs. Guan Wang (19-1-1); UFC Shanghai, Nov. 25.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2007: In their rematch, Anderson Silva knocked out Rich Franklin with knees for the second time at UFC 77.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

66% of you think Conor would beat Cody in a boxing match which seems a little low but maybe not wrong. That honestly would interest me more than Conor boxing Paulie or any other actual boxer.

That’s all for today folks. Enjoy the fights and see y’all Monday.

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EXIT POLL

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If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram, add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting, and like us on Facebook.