Tony Ferguson Defends Misfits Title Against Kenzo Biyong

“El Cucuy” isn’t done yet. Not by a long shot.

Tony Ferguson, the former UFC interim Lightweight champion who once terrorized an entire division, will step back into the boxing ring on Sept. 26, 2026, defending his Misfits Middleweight title against former soccer defender Kenzo Biyong at the James L. Knight Center in Miami. The five-round bout headlines a Misfits Boxing card that will stream live on DAZN.

Ferguson’s second life

At 42, Ferguson has done something few fighters manage: he has turned the page without pretending the last chapter didn’t happen.

He left the UFC on the back of a brutal, record-setting eight-fight losing streak, a skid that stretched nearly six years without a win and seemed to close the book on a once-electrifying career. Then came Misfits.

In August 2025, “El Cucuy” walked into the influencer-boxing circus and stole the show. He stopped Salt Papi in the third round of his Misfits debut, snapping that long, punishing drought and reminding everyone why his name still carries weight. Four months later, he backed it up, dropping Warren Spencer and outworking him over the distance to claim the vacant Misfits Middleweight championship by unanimous decision.

Two fights. Two wins. A belt around his waist again.

Now comes his first defense, a different kind of risk. Not against a seasoned striker, but against an athletic unknown with a strange, winding path to this ring.

From back line to boxing ring

Kenzo Biyong is not a typical title challenger. At 28, the Dutch athlete has already walked away from one professional dream.

He came through several European youth and developmental systems as a defender, carving out a career in soccer before deciding to leave the sport behind. Instead of drifting, he pivoted. First to wrestling. Then to submission grappling.

That path led him into the grappling arm of the UFC. In April, Biyong made his UFC BJJ debut at UFC BJJ 7, where Raphael Ferreira caught him early and finished him with a first-round rear-naked choke. It was a harsh introduction to that stage, but not the end of his experiments in combat sports.

Now he’s jumping into yet another arena: professional boxing, against a veteran with more than a decade of high-level fight experience.

A curious crossroads

Ferguson hasn’t stayed in one lane either. Between his Misfits outings, he tested himself on the wrestling mat, stepping in against UFC Lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan at Real American Freestyle 10 in June. Tsarukyan dominated, handing Ferguson a 10-0 technical-fall loss, a reminder of the gap between elite active contenders and a 42-year-old veteran still searching for competitive sparks.

But Ferguson keeps saying yes. To grappling. To boxing. To whatever keeps him close to the fight.

This Misfits title defense offers something different: control. In this space, he’s the champion, the name, the man with the momentum. Biyong, by contrast, walks in with no boxing record, no tape as a striker at this level, and a background built on defending space and battling for position rather than trading punches.

It’s a matchup that feels bizarre on paper, yet perfectly on brand for a promotion that thrives on left-field pairings and spectacle. A cult-favorite MMA wildman defending a novelty boxing belt against an ex-soccer defender turned grappler. Only Misfits could make that sound normal.

Stacked stage in Miami

Ferguson vs. Biyong won’t stand alone on Sept. 26.

The card also features former two-division UFC champion Henry Cejudo stepping through the ropes to box Deen the Great, a collision between Olympic gold and digital-era stardom. Misfits Heavyweight champion Chase DeMoor will defend his own title against Plinio Cruz, best known as Alex Pereira’s head coach and a respected figure in elite striking circles.

It all funnels into one night in Miami, where a 42-year-old “El Cucuy” tries to stretch this unexpected late-career run a little further and a 28-year-old newcomer attempts to rip the script out of his hands.

For Ferguson, this isn’t just a novelty defense. It’s a chance to prove that the resurgence isn’t a glitch, that the man who survived the worst losing streak of his life can still impose chaos on command.

For Biyong, it’s something simpler and far more daunting: a first step into boxing, taken directly against the storm.