Tony Ferguson Defends Misfits Title Against Kenzo Biyong

“El Cucuy” is not done yet.

Tony Ferguson, the former UFC interim Lightweight champion who once terrorized a division, is set for another unlikely chapter. On Sept. 26, 2026, inside the James L. Knight Center in Miami, the 42-year-old will defend his Misfits Middleweight title against Dutch newcomer Kenzo Biyong in a five-round boxing main event streamed on DAZN.

It is a sentence that would have sounded absurd a few years ago. Now it fits the chaos of Ferguson’s late-career reinvention.

Ferguson’s strange second act

Ferguson left the UFC carrying the weight of an eight-fight losing streak, a brutal slide that seemed to close the book on a wild, violent prime. Instead of fading, he pivoted. Misfits Boxing handed him a lifeline and he grabbed it with both hands.

In August 2025, nearly six years removed from his last victory in any combat sport, Ferguson walked into the influencer circus and treated it like a real fight. He stopped Salt Papi in the third round of his Misfits debut, snapping that long winless run and reminding everyone that his instincts under fire had not vanished.

Four months later he went again, this time with a belt on the line. Against Warren Spencer, Ferguson mixed pressure and volume, dropped his opponent, and walked away with a unanimous decision to claim the vacant Misfits Middleweight championship. Two fights, two wins. A new title. A new arena, same unorthodox menace.

Now comes the first defense.

The build-up has not been flawless. In June, Ferguson stepped onto a wrestling mat at Real American Freestyle (RAF) 10 and ran into elite resistance. UFC Lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan dominated him, scoring a 10-0 technical fall. It was a reminder of the level he once occupied and the gap that now exists there.

But boxing is where Ferguson’s rebirth lives, and Misfits is betting he can stretch this run a little longer.

From back line to boxing ring

Across from him in Miami will be a man with a very different route to the spotlight.

Kenzo Biyong, 28, grew up in the structured world of European football academies, playing as a defender in various youth and developmental setups. He walked away from that path, turned to combat sports, and began to rebuild himself in wrestling and submission grappling.

His progression brought him to UFC BJJ, where he debuted this past April at UFC BJJ 7. It did not go his way. Raphael Ferreira caught him early and finished him with a rear-naked choke in the first round.

Now Biyong steps into yet another new code. His boxing debut will come not on a quiet undercard, but against Ferguson, with a Misfits title at stake and the chaos of crossover combat swirling around them.

An ex-football defender trying to solve a veteran brawler who has seen every kind of storm. It is mismatched on paper, compelling on spectacle.

A wild Miami card

Ferguson vs. Biyong is just one piece of a stacked and eccentric Sept. 26 bill.

Former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo will lace up the gloves to box Deen the Great, a collision between an Olympic gold medalist and one of the influencer scene’s biggest draws. On the heavyweight end, Misfits champion Chase DeMoor puts his belt on the line against Plinio Cruz, best known to MMA fans as Alex Pereira’s head coach, now stepping into the ring himself.

It is the kind of card that defines Misfits: part experiment, part spectacle, part genuine combat.

At the center of it all stands Tony Ferguson, a man who refused to let an eight-fight skid write his ending. On a late-September night in Miami, he walks into the ring again, title on his shoulder, chaos in his eyes, and one more chance to prove that “El Cucuy” still has stories left to tell.