Midnight Mania: El Cucuy ‘Too Old To Retire’

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Remember a few months ago when former UFC Lightweight interim champion Tony Ferguson left a glove in the cage after being quickly strangled by Michael Chiesa for his record-setting eighth consecutive UFC defeat? It was a sad and long overdue moment. Alas, Ferguson was walking back his retirement before the night was over.

Despite recent roster purges, “El Cucuy” remains a name on the UFC ranks.

Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that Ferguson has officially confirmed that his retirement is off and he’s looking to fight again. He revealed as much on Demetrious Johnson’s YouTube channel, and the former top Lightweight is targeting an early 2025 return.

“I left half a f—king glove in there, and I got it back, so that just tells me I got both pairs of gloves,” Ferguson explained. “We’re going to probably take the rest of this season, figure some things out, and we’re coming back hard either January or February … F—k no I’m not retiring, I’m too old to retire.

“40 years old, I’m halfway to 80. I’ve been competing since I was five years old in multiple sports. It’s not like I don’t know anything else. I do. I’m still able to compete. When somebody can run a sprint faster than me, maybe I’ll start to consider it.”

Given his litany of knee injuries, I have to assume there’s a handful on the UFC roster who could in fact out-sprint Ferguson. Regardless, Ferguson at least has a plan to changing his fighting fortunes, and it doesn’t involve David Goggins this time. Instead, “El Cucuy” is planning to track down a real coach and training camp, possibly Firas Zahabi at Tristar in Montreal.

“What I really need is to find that coaching and that discipline around other people. Being uncomfortable in practice so that way you’re not miserable in the fight. I approached a couple different coaches. Firas Zahabi is one of the coaches I always admired, because he was GSP’s coach, and GSP was always my target.”

Ferguson spending time at a high-level camp is far from a bad idea, but it’s likely a few years too late. If it isn’t, Ferguson should probably be getting training in with top partners now while he doesn’t have a fight booked, because his recent performances leave a lot to be desired.

Insomnia

A little over a week ago, I cornered my team mate Namiki Kawahara as he won his third professional Strawweight title for the Cage Warriors Academy promotion in the United Kingdom. If you have enjoyed my articles about my own fights in the past, this write up is in a similar vein. Please give it a read HERE!

Kyler Phillips has a lot of cool tricks and different looks in his game. His fight versus Rob Font this weekend should be fun!

Banger alert! Bryan Battle is making a quick return to action after his UFC Paris win opposite Randy Brown.

I’m excited for Kai Asakura’s title shot debut vs. Pantoja, but he’ll be without one of his best weapons against an ace grappler.

Promoter Conor is hopefully subsidizing these new BKFC expenses.

Heavyweight boxing update:

Slips, rips, and KO clips

No worse place to be that flattened out back mount.

Superman punch into head kick KO — Awesome!

Dragging the kick across the body and countering (be it punches or takedown) is gaining popularity in MMA.

Random Land

Skills.

Midnight Music: Indie pop, 2012

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.