Tony Ferguson ended up headlining UFC 279 after a strange fight week as he took on Nate Diaz and suffered a fourth-round submission loss.
After four straight losses at lightweight, Ferguson returned to welterweight. In the fight against Diaz, Daniel Cormier didn’t think he looked good at all. ‘El Cucuy’ landed some solid leg kicks but even then Cormier wasn’t impressed and calls Ferguson a shell of himself.
Harsh Criticism for Tony Ferguson from Daniel Cormier Following UFC 279
“I could not believe what I was seeing,” Cormier said on DC & RC. “I’m not saying it was the worst fight of all time, not by any stretch of the imagination.”
“It tells me that Nate Diaz still has a little bit left in the tank if he wants to fight, but it also tells me Tony Ferguson is done as a guy that I’ve seen in the octagon. Tony Ferguson is done, bro. He is a shell of himself and he doesn’t want to retire. He actually said he feels like he got better, he saw some good things. I’m like what did he do in there to show that he’s better than he was prior?”
Ferguson has now lost five fights in a row, but he has lost to some of the best in Diaz, Michael Chandler, Beneil Dariush, Charles Oliveira, and Justin Gaethje. However, in all five of the fights, Ferguson has not looked like himself which is why DC thinks he is done.
Daniel Cormier Says is Was a Steep Drop for Tony Ferguson’s Career
The former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion himself, Cormier says it is sad to see how quickly Ferguson fell off.
“That’s what stands out the most to me,” Cormier said. “Like, Nate Diaz can do whatever he wants. For Nate Diaz, not fighting Khamzat was a gift from god.”
“That is literally best-case scenario for him. But you know what the crazy thing about Tony Ferguson to me … is that it wasn’t a gradual decline. It was like he got to the edge of the cliff and just fell off the cliff. It was Justin Gaethje then that was it. The moment he was done [was] that interim title fight — he wasn’t as good. Granted, he lost to Beneil Dariush and Charles Oliveira so you go, ‘Well, he’s fighting the best in the world.’ But now we got to see him fight Nate Diaz who’s not the best in the world right now. Nate will tell you he’s the best in the world, but he didn’t do great against Nate.”
