Tony Ferguson Calls Recent Losses “The Best Learning Experience”
2020, needless to say, was a very rough year for “El Cucuy” Tony Ferguson.
Ferguson missed out, again, on a much looked forward to fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, fought his future challenger Justin Gaethje and got finished in the 5th round, then was dominated by Charles Oliveira. UFC 262 is potentially the most important fight of his career against Beneil Dariush.
But in his own words, it sounds like his recent losses is just what he needed to figure things out.
Full quote from MMAFighting.com:
Last year, it had nothing to do with coaches or anything else,” Ferguson said in an interview with Submission Radio (transcription via Denis Shkuratov). “Seriously, I take all the fault and all my blame on it, but the two losses that I had, I’m gonna be real with you guys, it was the best learning experience I probably could’ve ever had and the best thing that was for me and my family.
He would go on to say:
“Chasing after a guy like Khabib and then trying to get the fight and then not getting the fight and then having interim belts dangled in front of you, the game is what it is. You can’t get mad at the game. But how you play the game is exactly your approach. And that’s what I did for this year. I completely changed my approach.”
When asked about his opponent, he had this to say:
“He’s been doing the game for a long time,” Ferguson said of Dariush. “He’s over at Huntington beach with Rafael Cordeiro. He’s a southpaw, he’s very strong on his left side. He’s very game in mixing it up. So, that’s why I’ve been mixing my s*it up. Because I got too one-dimensional. When you get too one-dimensional, you start to plateau. And as a master trainer, you should be able to realize that and then understand that, make some changes, and then be able to get your athlete back on the same program, which was, not peaking, but steadily increasing. Paying attention to the smaller details are always going to make the best things. And Beneil and their team, they got a s*itload of people over there helping them out. They got like an Ultimate Fighter team. It feels like I’m back on The Ultimate Fighter, guys. It really does.”
I am very intrigued to see how Tony Ferguson looks come May 15th. And along with the rest of the MMA community, we will be watching with bated breath.
