Tony Ferguson certainly leaves no stone unturned when it comes to fight preparation.
El Cucuy, the former interim UFC lightweight champion, takes on Michael Chiesa in a welterweight contest in the UFC’s return to Abu Dhabi this weekend in a fight in which he hopes to put an end to a seven-fight streak of defeats dating back to his last win in the Octagon more than five years ago.
And after being put through his paces by the famed fitness enthusiast David Goggins ahead of his fight with Paddy Pimblett late last year, Ferguson is trying another approach — round after round of sparring as he seeks to sharpen his skills ahead of Saturday’s contest.
“I think it’s pretty cool that I’m able to do this, I obviously want to continue to do this so I have to perform and I will perform, that’s why this camp was a little more interesting for me,” Ferguson said in an interview with UFC.com, as noted by Bloody Elbow.
Ferguson added: “I went back to sparring… I went back to sparring, I haven’t sparred in seven years, where I’ve had good training partners, I put in about 120 rounds or more of sparring, I put in a lot of wrestling, good training partners, good vibes, a good team.”
It has been slim pickings for Ferguson in recent years. His defeat to Pimblett last December followed similar results against the likes of King Green, Nate Diaz, Michael Chandler, Beneil Dariush, Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje — a sequence which came after 12 successive UFC wins which had established him as one of the premiere lightweights on the planet.
And now healthy, Ferguson is confident of getting back in the win column.
“It was only until January when I had my two surgeries,” he said. “I had back-to-back surgeries on my knee and my elbow, that it brought me slow enough, I had no choice but to go step by step to get my sh*t back to where it needed to be. That’s flexibility, mental, speed, so on. I went in there and took this camp very seriously.”
