Tony Ferguson has pinpointed the exact moment his UFC career began to fall apart.
Ferguson (25-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC) was riding a 12-fight winning streak going into 2020, leading to “El Cucuy” being booked to face then-lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC) in a world title fight at UFC 249.
The pair had been matched on a staggering FOUR separate occasions prior to the event, with the bout falling through each time due to injuries sustained by both fighters.
Former interim champion Ferguson finally looked set to earn his shot at the unified belt, until the coronavirus pandemic intervened, postponing the event and putting a stop to international travel. With Nurmagomedov unable to enter the United States, Ferguson was instead pitted against Justin Gaethje for the interim title at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas a month later.
The dramatic change in style of opponent led to Ferguson sustaining some quite debilitating injuries, and he went on to lose to Gaethje, kickstarting an 8-fight skid that would ultimately signal the end of his UFC career.
“This was during the pandemic, around the Gaethje fight,” Ferguson told Bloody Elbow. “I just did not prepare the same. When I prepared for Khabib, we were not conditioning our shins and s***. I was preparing for sambo. I was going to throw this dude right on his f***ing back and embarrass him in his own sport.
“So they switched opponents, and my body took a f***ing beating. I wanted to go out there and demonstrate to people how f***ing tough we were as f***ing human beings. There was a lot going on and a lot of mental weight that I thought I could handle.
“I put it on myself, and it dragged me the f*** down. That was my own fault. I did that. It took a lot of beating the s*** out of myself to be able to snap out of it the way I did.”
