UFC 262 saw Tony Ferguson handily lose his third fight in a row. Now this has Daniel Cormier doubting El Cucuy’s future as an elite competitor at 155lb.
Like most of us, Cormier loved to watch Ferguson in his prime, destroying fools on his way to a legendary 12-fight winning streak and interim title. While he never wound up fighting for undisputed gold, there was a time that Tony was argued as being the best lightweight in the world.
Unfortunately things have changed, and done so rapidly, as is the case in MMA far too often. That long run has now been marred by three straight defeats, all of which seeing El Cucuy throughly handled inside the Octagon.
Daniel Cormier Says Tony Ferguson Is Done
With this most recent loss at UFC 262, to Beneil Dariush, fans have wondered where Tony Ferguson goes from here. In Daniel Cormier’s opinion, El Cucuy is heading down a dark path that leads nowhere good.
Speaking on the most recent episode of the DC and Helwani show, the former champ-champ made it clear that he felt like Tony’s days as a top lightweight are over. Moreover, he expressed serious concern with the dominant way that Tony has been losing these fights.
“Tony Ferguson, as a top level mixed marital artist, is done I believe. Make no mistake about it, he’s not losing to scrubs. He’s fighting the best of the best, but those are fights that Tony Ferguson used to win,” Cormier said.
“He is not only losing, but he is getting dominated. He has now lost 11 rounds in a row, and has not looked competitive. So I think Tony needs to take a step back, and the level of competition obviously needs to drop, and we need to see where he goes.”
Daniel Cormier goes on to explain that in the UFC, we regularly see fighters who were once great, lose and lose quickly. So he wants to see Ferguson take a step back and face off against someone who is not ranked, much like we saw from Dominick Cruz recently.
That being said, DC knows that in the lightweight division of the UFC there is no easy fight. So while Tony has the heart of a champion still, Daniel is not sure that the physical skills are there anymore.
“Champions don’t lose their heart, they don’t lose their desire to fight. They just lose the ability to do the things that made them so great in the past, and I think right now, that is what we’re seeing with El Cucuy,” Cormier explained.
“He’s still a fighter at heart. He wants to win. He’s willing to compete and not give up on himself. He’s just having a difficult time implementing the things in a fight that he was doing in the training room, when before he was so free.”
As Daniel Cormier alludes to, it is hard for fans to see someone so beloved like Tony Ferguson, go through such a tough time in the Octagon. Time will tell where he goes from here, but it is impossible to deny that he is no longer the same fighter he once was.
