Beneil Dariush believes it’s time for Tony Ferguson to hang up his gloves.
After coming up short against Charles Oliveira to claim his first UFC championship opportunity in June, Dariush is going back to the drawing board. In December, ‘Benny’ will return to action for a high-stakes clash with division standout Arman Tsarukyan in hopes of clawing his way back into lightweight title contention.
Ahead of his highly anticipated return, Dariush sat down with Luke Thomas to discuss the status of the lightweight division and the plethora of big-money matchups coming down the pike, including Tony Ferguson’s much-maligned matchup with rising UK star Paddy Pimblett.
Ferguson, who is currently sitting on a six-fight losing streak, will face Pimblett, a fighter on a six-fight win streak, as part of the promotion’s final pay-per-view of the year, UFC 296.
Tony Ferguson believes that “Patrick” Pimblett is “very beatable”.@TonyFergusonXT / @arielhelwani / #TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/aLF4mHEkfL
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) October 2, 2023
Beneil Dariush Says It’s Time for Tony Ferguson to Walk Away From MMA
Speaking about Ferguson’s struggle in recent years and his own experience competing against ‘El Cucuy’ at UFC 262, Beneil Dariush believes it’s time for Ferguson to walk away.
“As far as Tony Ferguson goes, I think Tony should hang it up but it’s his decision because from my understanding, in his training, he feels better, he’s doing better,” Dariush said. “It’s just for some reason, fight day, it’s not showing up you know and he has reasons for every one of the fights but from what I felt personally when I was striking with him, and we didn’t do a lot of striking, there was a weird, awkward pause in his striking almost like a glitch in the system. So, I didn’t like that. I personally think he should retire but it’s Tony’s choice.”
After suffering his sixth-straight defeat against ‘King’ Bobby Green in July, many fight fans expected ‘El Cucuy’ to quietly enter retirement. Instead, Ferguson will give it another go against the returning Liverpudlian, Paddy Pimblett.
The bout has been heavily criticized by fighters and fans alike, but Ferguson remains adamant that the bout is very winnable and suggested during an appearance on The MMA Hour that this could be the fight that gets his MMA career back on track.
Watch the full interview with Beneil Dariush below:
