Tony Ferguson has a message to the haters who thinks he should retire.
Going into his bout against Justin Gaethje at UFC 249, the former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion was on a strong 12-fight winning streak with impressive wins over Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, and Edson Barboza.
Despite tearing through the 155-pound division, Ferguson was surprisingly dominated in his bout against Gaethje, and following that interim title fight, many were calling for the 36-year-old to walk away from the sport entirely. Speaking to ESPN, Ferguson quickly shuts down any notion that he’ll hang up the gloves for good and has a simple message to the fans who feel that he should retire:
“For me, I’m able to adjust on the fly. I feel bad for a lot of these up and coming fighters that just got their pro license or they are looking for fights and they don’t know what to do. Or, these college athletes that don’t know what is going on with their future or how they are going to get picked into the draft,” Ferguson said to ESPN. “There are a lot of what-ifs, right? It’s crazy, I feel for those guys man. A lot of us veterans, we can adjust on the fly like how we have with this stuff.
“We are able to change with experience, but that is us plowing the road for these younger generations to come through and eventually take the torch,” he continued. “But, for me, that ain’t anytime soon. These motherf*****s are out there writing me off saying yo you need to retire right now, f**k you guys.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
As previously mentioned, Ferguson has stated that he’s interested in fighting Dustin Poirier or Conor McGregor next. Both lightweights are in the top five rankings, with Ferguson sitting at number three.