Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Tony Ferguson seems at peace where others are not after UFC 249 was postponed.
You gotta admit. Tony Ferguson took the news of UFC 249 being postponed indefinitely a lot better than many of us.
It’s been an unfortunate situation for everyone involved. For a lot of MMA fans, the originally-scheduled fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson on April 18 in Brooklyn always had a shadow over it anyway. We’ve been prepared for this since a rib injury took Khabib out of the their Dec. 11 bout in 2015.
Amidst the chaos, Ferguson was in a Zen kind of mood when he learned about the cancellation in real time.
“You know what? I’m sure it’s for a good reason,” Ferguson told Brian Martin during an interview. “Let’s be real. I gotta keep the faith. I gotta keep this … f*ck… keep this small circle close, bro, and just keep focusing on what we can control, which is our heart rate and our breathing.”
This will be the 5th time a bout between Ferguson and Khabib has been scrapped. It’s enough history to fill an A&P textbook: first it was Khabib’s ribs, then Tony’s lungs, and we even traveled to the kidney section when Nurmagomedov was hospitalized for “weight-management issues”.
Ferguson remains upbeat. He’s even got some words of wisdom. With a splash of Ferguson’s trademark quirks of course.
“The constant is things are always gonna change. The variable is how am I gonna react to it? So we could throw that variable, baby, and we make that the constant. Which is why I’m gonna keep smiling, I’m gonna keep training, and you know what? I’m gonna put on some muscle. Dude, I’m skinny. I’m gonna put on some muscle. I’m gonna try my best. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna try my best. If I fall, I’ll get back up.”