Tony Ferguson | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Tony Ferguson isn’t hanging up the gloves just yet.

A former UFC interim lightweight champion, the past few years have been especially unkind to Ferguson. “El Cucuy” is currently on an eight-fight losing streak and has not won a bout since 2020. Most recently, Ferguson was submitted by Michael Chiesa at UFC Abu Dhabi back in August, after which he laid one glove down in the cage and teased a possible retirement. But that is no longer the case.

“I only put half the f*cking glove in there, and I got it back, so that just tells me I’ve got both pairs of gloves,” Ferguson said on Demetrious Johnson’s YouTube channel. “So yep. We’re going to probably take the rest of this season, figure things out hard, and we’re coming back either January or February. Stayed tuned.”

One of the more popular fighters in the sport, Ferguson’s calamitous run in recent years has led to increasing calls for his retirement from fans and fellow fighters. But despite his bad run, Ferguson is simply not ready to walk away from the sport he loves and has a plan to change things up moving forward.

“F*ck no I’m not retiring,” Ferguson said. “I’m too old to retire. I’m 40 years old. I’m halfway to 80, I’ve been competing since I was five years old in multiple sports. I wrestled in college, I’ve done all the other stuff, and you know what? It’s not like I don’t know anything else. I do. I’m still able to compete. When somebody is able to run or sprint faster than me then maybe I will start to consider it. But what I really need is to find that coaching, that discipline around other people, being uncomfortable in practice so that way you’re not miserable in the fight… That’s where we’re at right now.”

As for when he’ll return and who it might be again, Ferguson doesn’t have any specific plans at the moment. Instead, he plans to called up UFC CEO Dana White sometime next year and let him figure it out.

“I’m not in any rush for anything,” Ferguson said. “Usually I have little ailments or booboos, hurt, broken. I’m fully recovered from my surgeries. I had two surgeries in January and I fought — not saying I rushed it… The way I’m moving is pretty good. So instead of getting excited and jumping at anything I want, I make the phone call to Dana and tell him, ‘Look, I’m looking for a fight,’ and then they give me one.”

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EXIT POLL

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