The Rise and Fall of Tony Ferguson

Tony Ferguson AKA “El Cucuy” is one the greatest lightweights the UFC has ever seen. His rise to the top was one of the most fun times to be an mma fan. His unique style, his submissions, and his personality were all what made him such a great fighter. Tony hasn’t looked like the “Old” Tony Ferguson recently, instead he has looked like an “Old” Tony Ferguson.

Ferguson was lost working in the sales department during the day and would also pick up shifts as a bartender at night. One night while he was working somebody had come up to Tony and noticed his cauliflower ear. The guy who struck this conversation was a trainer at a local MMA gym and wanted to bring Tony along to help train some of the kids with their wrestling. This is what began the career of Tony Ferguson.

Early into his career he was pretty successful and had stacked a record of 10-2. Ferguson then applied to be in the UFC’s T.V. show The Ultimate Fighter. He was finally accepted in 2010. He was picked by Brock Lesnar where he defeated Justin Edwards by K.O. in the first round. He would go on to win the next two matches to compete in the final against Ramsey Nijem. Ferguson beat Nijem by knockout once again in the first round to win his UFC contract.

Tony Ferguson would win his first two fights in the UFC and was looking pretty good. This was up until he faced Michael Johnson where he lost by unanimous decision. After this loss, this would begin one of the best win streaks the UFC has ever seen. Tony looked like he was from a whole other planet against these guys. He was submitting everybody and out-working everybody with his unique style of fighting. Tony didn’t care what you threw at him, he would eat every shot and would still be coming forward like a zombie punching you and taking you down. This type of fighting caught the whole world of MMA. After winning six fights in a row the UFC wanted to book a lightweight banger with Tony and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Surely, as you all know this fight never took place. This fight with Khabib was canceled a total of five times.

Tony Ferguson would continue this amazing win streak beating guys such as Edson Barboza and Rafael dos Anjos. Ferguson was stacking up these wins and was submitting everybody making it look easy. He almost looked invincible and this is why we called him “El Cucuy”. Once again the fight was scheduled with Khabib vs. Tony for the interim UFC lightweight Championship, and once again Khabib would pull out of the fight. Due to Khabib pulling out, Kevin Lee would be the replacement. There was a lot of animosity between the fighters going into the fight. This fight was an all timer where we saw a lot of back and forth, but Tony would eventually beat Kevin Lee by triangle choke. At this point every single fan wanted the Khabib fight, and rightfully so. But once again the fight would be canceled due to Ferguson having a tear in his fibular collateral ligament.

Ferguson would return to face Anthony Pettis and win this fight via corner stoppage after Pettis had suffered a broken hand. Ferguson would also go on to win his next fight vs Donald Cerrone and now fans were begging for the khabib fight now. This fight would’ve been one of the best fights in UFC history. It was finally scheduled for April 18, 2020. As we all know, this would be the fifth and final cancellation due to covid and Khabib was restricted from leaving. Justin Gaethje would step in on short notice. This led to the fall of Tony Ferguson as he looked like an old Tony getting outstruck very badly which led to his first loss since May 5, 2012. Tony never looked the same after that night as he would lose six in a row. Some of the opponents being Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, and Michael Chandler. Michael Chandler being the worst loss so far as he would get knocked out scarily by a front kick.

Tony Ferguson is an all time great. At this stage of his career it's time we start the conversation on him retiring. What else does he have to prove, well you could say he needs to win a belt, but we can’t see that happening, not in the UFC. But let's not forget there was a point in time where Tony was one of the greatest and most exciting lightweights on planet Earth. Just like the old saying “One day you’re the statue. One day you’re the pigeon.”