At 41 years old, Tony Ferguson is feeling like a new man … and all it took was a change of scenery.
Ferguson was once one of the top fighters in the UFC, and between 2013 and 2019 he went on a wild 12-fight win streak in the ultra-tough lightweight division. But then things fell apart, and “El Cucuy” went on an equally dreadful eight fight losing streak that ended with his release from the UFC in 2024.
Most other fighters would have retired somewhere along that stretch, but not Ferguson. And that tenacity
was rewarded when he signed with Misfits Boxing and TKO’d Salt Papi for the promotion’s middleweight title in August. Now he’ll try to defend that belt against 2-0 social media influencer turned fighter Warren Spencer at Misfits Mania on December 20th.
In a new interview with MMA Fighting, Ferguson credited the change from UFC to Misfits and MMA to boxing for his turnaround.
“One coach would always tell me, ‘Make sure you water plants, Tony,'” Ferguson said. “And it brought me back to how I used to be: always f–kin’ gardening. But sometimes you get so busy, you forget. And sometimes you don’t add enough nutrients and you don’t have enough sunlight, sometimes you have to move that s–t. You have to move yourself. Move it to a different area.”
“We are getting enough sun, and we are doing enough things and nutrients, but it doesn’t happen overnight. You expect it to happen overnight, but when you don’t realize it and you’re not paying attention to it and you keep with the routine, somebody else will notice it, and they notice the hard work that went into it because that becomes your routine.”
It hasn’t been easy to stay this positive. Even his Ultimate Fighter coach Brock Lesnar suggested he hang up the gloves during his five year losing streak.
“I had a conversation with Coach Brock,” Ferguson recalled. “I forget what loss it was or whatever fight it was … he was like, ‘You should think about retiring, Tony.’ Can’t f–king listen to anybody. F–k no!”
“Why would I listen to anybody that’s not in my shoes?” he asked. “You’re not here. You don’t know what the f–k it takes to be here. You might have your f–king opinion, but you don’t f–king stay here through the bulls–t with me. Nobody f–king does. Through the ice baths, through the f–king saunas, through the f–king running, the late night bodies. Nobody fucking does that s–t.”
“So you guys that critique me or f–king any other person that’s coming out here doing this shit, f–k you.”
That’s not exactly how he responded to Lesnar at the time, though.
“I asked Coach Brock, ‘Coach, what do guys like us do when we retire?’ I value his opinion, and he says, ‘Find your second passion and follow that with everything you’ve got like you did your first.'”
Ferguson still sees boxing as an extension of his first passion, which is sports. But someday, probably years and years from now, he’s going to take Lesnar’s advice and become a coach.
“I’m gonna be a f–king college wrestling coach one day,” Ferguson said. “This is my retirement. Like, wrestling is my life. I love this. If I wasn’t doing all this fighting and competing and stuff, yeah, would coach more … Because I was fortunate enough to have somebody do that for me, and I remember somebody was cool enough to be able to tell me to pay it forward. So if I’m able to do that kind of thing, they’ll be able to go and do that to somebody else someday.”
For now, though, Ferguson is focused on defending his Misfits belt at Misfits Mania: The Fight Before Christmas on December 20th. And then? More fights, and more wins.
“I know you guys are gonna be awesome this year,” Ferguson declared. “So am I. 2026, I’m coming at you harder than a right hook.”
