Tony Ferguson reiterates that he has no intentions of retiring.
Ferguson (25-10 MMA, 15-8 UFC) suffered his seventh straight loss to Paddy Pimblett this past December at UFC 296. Despite the skid, the former interim lightweight champion, who once was on a 12-fight winning streak, still has the desire to compete.
The likes of UFC CEO Dana White and Daniel Cormier have urged him to hang up his gloves, but Ferguson refuses to give in.
“I’m already a Hall of Famer, man,” Ferguson said on the “JAXXON PODCAST.” “They already f*cking know it, and you know what? I’m not retiring. Anytime I get hurt, I come back with a f*cking vengeance because, like I said, you need a slap in that face in order to do it because the only person that’s going to do it is ourselves. Nobody is going to tell us what the f*ck to do. I’m going to fight until the wheels fall off. F*ck retiring.”
Ferguson sought help from former Navy SEAL David Goggins, who put him through a rigorous training camp. The 39-year-old explained how the two connected.
“He sent me a message through my agent, who sent it to me, and we just kept in contact,” Ferguson said. “He sent me another one once in a while. Then he finally reached out to me and he was like, ‘Tony, I want to help you.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, where you at?’ I thought he was on the East Coast, ‘No, I’m in Vegas. I have a compound out here.’
“And every morning, every night, he would text me and check in on me. Like, he was just a guardian, and it was cool as f*ck. He was like, ‘I need to be really honest with you. I need to get in your head, Tony. We can get you there, but you’re going to have to go through the sh*t.'”
After a loss to Michael Johnson in 2012, it was eight years until Ferguson’s next setback in May 2020. In his current skid, he’s lost to Justin Geathje, Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, Michael Chandler, Nate Diaz, Bobby Green and Pimblett.
