Oh, the times they are a changin’. After going on a 12-fight winning streak from 2013 to 2019, former interim UFC Lightweight Champion Tony Ferguson is now on the path for a record that is diametrically opposed — after his loss to Paddy Pimblett this past Saturday at UFC 296, Ferguson is now on a seven-fight losing streak, tying him with fellow fallen from grace former legend BJ Penn for consecutive losses.
The latest loss makes UFC Hall of Famer and current analyst Daniel Cormier thinks that it’s finally time for Ferguson to call it quits.
“Tony Ferguson would seem to be done,” Cormier said on the latest episode of his ESPN show “DC & RC.” “Call it what it is.”
Cormier added, “I believe that Tony Ferguson should retire. I really try to limit trying to show a man the door because nobody knows when someone’s done until they know that they’re done. … Only Tony knows when it’s time, but it seems as though he’s the only one left that isn’t sure. Everybody else feels pretty certain that that time has come for Tony Ferguson.”
“Many didn’t even expect Tony Ferguson to go 15 minutes, so hat’s off to Tony for doing that,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “But David Goggins, who cornered him (at UFC 296), came up to us at the end of the fight and said, ‘Tony may retire after this.’ And I said, ‘Well, is he?’
“He goes, ‘I don’t know.’ But we gave our opinions and said, ‘Maybe it is time for Tony to retire.’ While his heart and his mind are still telling him to go, I don’t necessarily know if his timing is still where it needs to be because for a short period of time in those fights, you see the old Tony Ferguson. But as time goes on, he isn’t the same guy.”
UFC President Dana White shares Cormier’s sentiment. “I would love to see Tony retire,” White said in the UFC 296 post-conference.
While Cormier and White adamant that Tony Ferguson should retire, Tony’s last opponent, Paddy Pimblett, has a different opinion.
“I said this earlier, it’s mad the way people are telling him to retire. It’s the person’s decision who’s fighting when they wanna retire,” Pimblett said during the post-fight conference at UFC 296. “No one will ever tell me when to retire. It’s my decision. If Tony wants to keep getting in there and fighting, he can.
“I think if you put him in there with someone a little bit lower in the division, like a Mark O. Madsen or a Drakkar Klose, someone like that, then I think he beats them,” Pimblett added.
Tony too of course, isn’t ready to hang it up yet either. He took to Instagram to say (with a whole lot more emojis and different capitalization, of course), “Love my fans & supporters… keep the faith.”
Do you share Daniel Cormier and Dana White’s sentiment Tony Ferguson should retire? Let us know in the comments.
