Tony Ferguson was taken to the hospital following his scary knockout loss to Michael Chandler at UFC 274, so we didn’t get to hear his thoughts on his fourth loss in a row. But in a new interview with MMA Junkie, Ferguson discussed the defeat without sounding too concerned.
“I got knocked the f—k out,” Ferguson said. “I don’t want that s—t to ever happen again. It could’ve one, been prevented. And two, I should’ve had him finished in the first round as soon as I knocked him down. The little basics that I could’ve done to make sure I could’ve got out in the first round, and then everybody would be kissing my ass. But God works in mysterious ways, and he’s not ready yet, son.”
Ferguson is ready to change things up moving forward. Part of that involves leaving his comfort zone and joining a team. Another involves potentially moving to welterweight, where he won The Ultimate Fighter back in 2011.
“I wouldn’t mind going back up to 170,” Ferguson said. “I knocked everybody out up there at 170. This cut to 155, it’s not too hard, but I lose a lot of muscle mass, man. I f—king hate being skinny like that, I look like a little b—ch, I don’t f—king like that.”
“I work my ass off to put on muscle and make sure that I eat right, and I do that, and my pops always told me, ‘Anthony, wrestle at your own bodyweight.’ And I haven’t done that for a while.”
Whatever is coming, Ferguson wants to move forward without a long break. UFC president Dana White suggested after UFC 274 that “El Cucuy” take some time off due to how bad the Chandler knockout was. But Tony doesn’t sound interested in a long layover.
“F—k no!” he declared. “Check this out: if you have an investor, like a venture capitalist, do you think you’re gonna sit there and let your businesses just sit there and float? Absolutely not! You’re gonna sit there and you’re gonna get back to work. You’re gonna do the numbers and you’re gonna make sure you make the good adjustments.”
“When I’m ready to fight I will let the UFC know,” he added later. “And I guarantee you they’ll let me know, too, ‘Hey, this is who we have. I was ready for Makhachev in Abu Dhabi if some things would’ve been a little bit different. But I try to take these opportunities and present them so I’m there for the company. They know I’m a company man, and that’s why they said I’m not going anywhere.”