Tony Ferguson: Miserable in the Cage, Comfortable In Practise – How He’s Back to His Roots
Tony Ferguson is feeling a renewed vigor and fire inside him ahead of his boxing debut later this week. Ferguson will step into the ring in an interim MFB championship bout against Salt Papi at Misfits Boxing 22 on August 30th.
In a recent interview with Damon Martin of MMA Fighting, ‘El Cucuy‘ expressed why he feels this surge of additional motivation within him as Ferguson prepares to fight under Queensberry Rules. The former UFC interim lightweight champion was discussing how complacency affected him during the later stages of his heart-wrenching UFC run, but those issues have been subverted for this sweet science showdown in the coming days.
Discussing his mindset as compared to past fights as he prepares to step into the ring on Saturday, Tony Ferguson said,
“I don’t give a [expletive]. The interest is there right now and it doesn’t matter who the [expletive] is going to step in front of me. You could put anybody in front of me come that night. I’m going to go in there. I’m going to give the best version of myself that I possibly can because I’m uncomfortable in practice right now. The last four to five years I’ve been comfortable in practice and I’ve been miserable in the fight because I just didn’t want to [expletive] do it.”
Tony Ferguson on UFC exit and MMA Future
Tony Ferguson at one point had a double-digit win streak in MMA, but many are unsure what lies ahead for him in mixed martial arts after leaving the UFC on the heels of eight consecutive defeats. That being said, Ferguson does not care what any of his detractors have to say about this recent skid he has been on, as evidenced by his comments in the aforementioned MMA Fighting interview.
Ferguson at one point had signed on for an MMA fight against Dillon Danis in GFL, only for the Global Fight League to cancel their kickoff cards toward the end of May without so much as a peep from them since. When discussing his vision for his future in combat sports, Ferguson stated [via MMA Fighting],
“When it goes into MMA, the chances present itself, and it does interest me, because I don’t have to do it. I don’t have to do it. We walked away, handshakes, and if that presents itself and it makes sense, yeah, we’re going to do it. But right now the focus is boxing. After that, if I want to grapple, yeah. Arman Tsarukyan, when we were over and I was doing the Real Fights [reality series].”
“I was over there in Thailand, and I don’t know if you got to see it, people were trying to take me down. One person tried to take me down, and it wasn’t on film. I went to go get a Coca-Cola off the mat, and this guy tried to take me down; I accidentally snapped his arm. He got an underhook, and I snapped his arm. Pulled him in and I threw him in an uchi mata, landed on him, and I walked away, and I went and I hosted a match. It was fast. I did it really quick.”
