The Tony Ferguson song and dance doesn’t at all look like it will have a happy ending. When Ferguson was booked to battle his fellow past winner of The Ultimate Fighter Michael Chiesa at UFC Abu Dhabi , it had MMA fans scratching their heads for several reasons. After seven consecutive losses, UFC CEO Dana White admitted he wanted to see the one-time interim lightweight champion call it a career with many in agreement.
His return booking came as a surprise alone, but to have Nick Diaz initially on the card as well and not fight Ferguson was perplexing. If either had to fight anybody, pairing them together felt like the most, if not only , appropriate option. After his performance against Chiesa this past Saturday, Ferguson (25-11) admitted it was a great fight week, but he did feel slow and sluggish in the octagon.
Therefore, he lost by submission for the third time in four fights when Chiesa scored the first-round rear-naked choke. It was Ferguson’s first fight at welterweight since his fourth-round guillotine loss to Nate Diaz at UFC 279 in September 2022 “I felt sick,” Ferguson laughed in his UFC Abu Dhabi post-fight scrum (h/t The Mac Life ). “I threw up probably like maybe three or four times being nervous as f*ck.
I usually don’t get nervous but in the back, I was kind of yacking and dry-heaving, which was kind of funny how that works. This is the only sport that makes me do that. When it goes to any other thing, it’s kind of interesting how it goes.
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