Tony Ferguson snapped his eight fight losing streak on Saturday night at Misfits Boxing X Series 22, earning a TKO win over Nathaniel “Salt Papi” Bustamante.
That’s a win few people saw coming. The 41-year-old Ferguson was a +340 dog to -500 favorite “Salt Papi,” and many expected “El Cucuy” to end up on the wrong end of a highlight reel for his boxing debut. Instead, Ferguson showed that dog and kept the pressure on Bustamante despite being slower and eating some sharp combos from the 31-year-old.
By the third round, “Salt Papi” was fading and Ferguson was just getting started. He backed his opponent into the ropes and just started unloading punches, forcing the referee to step in and wave the fight off (watch the highlights here).
“Everybody that bet against me, I guess they’re kicking their ass right now,” Ferguson said during a media scrum after the win (video via Fred Talks Fighting). “Being real, being an underdog, coming through here, being super nervous at the beginning of camp, and then just trusting the process with my coaches and my cornermen. We came out of here, we did what we wanted to do. And it was a good reminder of who I am, and I’m a fighter.”
Ferguson fell to his knees in the ring and was overwhelmed with emotion after the fight ended, but don’t say he cried.
“Not crying. It was chill, man. I had no tears,” Ferguson insisted. “Just nothing but joy and just enjoying the moment for a split second. Because you’re talking about years, man. Years of just not being happy. Not because of the losses. Of just not being happy. This is something I’ve always wanted to do. I always wanted to throw on some shoes and throw on some boxing gloves and go and sling some leather. And tonight was that perfect example to be able to do that, get rid of the nerves, and get that first victory out of the way.”
“I need one victory to get me back into where I needed to be, which is killer mode,” he said later. “And I bring that confidence back to be able to understand who the f—k I am. Because for a long time, when the pandemic hit, I don’t know what the f—k happened. Everything broke outside of there and I had to bring back sports, and it took a lot of pressure. I have no pressure on me now.”
There was a lot of talk that the referee had stopped the fight prematurely, not just from fans but from Bustamante’s corner and Misfits officials A better reffed fight probably should have seen “Salt Papi” get a standing eight count, but Ferguson said the result would have been the same in the end.
“We had two more rounds to put them away, so it would have come either way,” he said. “As soon as I started putting more pressure on him, he was starting to make more mistakes and not punching back. And I knew that I was gonna put more pressure on him. We were gonna get that victory either way.”
As for what’s next, Ferguson was tight-lipped. He said Dillon Danis was closer to a friend than an opponent, and suggested he had a ways to go before being a potential opponent for Misfits founder KSI. “El Cucuy” is now the Misfits interim middleweight champion, so perhaps he’ll fight “AnEson Gib” aka Ali Loui Al-Fakhri to unify the title.
“I don’t even know who Gib is,” Ferguson admitted. “But I’m gonna be real. When it goes into it, I’m here to stay. I like Misfits Boxing. I’m a potential UFC hall of famer, not potentially, a UFC hall of famer when it goes into it. I like collecting accolades, and this is gonna look cool on my part, so I’m excited.”
