The 44-year-old Shamrock (26-13-2) beat out fellow candidates Sean Gannon and Brett Rogers, who called out Slice in May, for the coveted slot.
Shamrock, a 15-year veteran of the game who made his storied Octagon debut at UFC 1 in November 1993, has dropped his last five bouts in a row since 2005, including a lackluster showing against brawler Robert Berry at Cage Rage 25 last March.
In his last fight at the end of May Ferguson looked to be in a bit of trouble against Englishman James ‘The Colossus’ Thompson, but eventually won the bout by knockout in the third round in a fight he was perhaps losing on points.
After his fight with Thompson Ferguson admitted that fighting in a cage with skilled opponents is a lot different from fighting in the streets.
There are mixed emotions from experts about the match up. While some feel Shamrock will be Ferguson’s toughest challenge, others think Shamrock is past his prime and is in jeopardy of getting seriously hurt by Ferguson’s power.
Ferguson acknowledged that he has a lot of work to do to learn how to fight better on the ground where most of his opponents will try to take him because of his knock out power.
Before he began fighting as a mixed martial artist, Ferguson travelled the U.S. from state to state looking for the badest men who wanted to put money on the line to fight him fist to fist to see who was the better man. This year he earned his first million dollar cheque and will most likely never have to fight on the streets in order to survive again.
Ferguson has family members in the Fox Hill area who he has been in contact with in recent weeks. The Journal was unable to determine if Ferguson is at all related to the NFL New York Jets offensive lineman D’Brickashaw Ferguson who is also from Fox Hill.
- Austin DWI - New York DWI