For Ben Askren, UFC 296 is the evidence of the final nail in the coffin of Tony Ferguson’s UFC career. To explain this, the retired fighter underscored that Paddy Pimblett didn’t even give the veteran a good fight but still lost in the end.
Ferguson faced Pimblett more than a week ago. And while the 39-year-old managed to last until the last round, he lost to the Briton via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27). This ultimately triggered the MMA community, fellow fighters, and even UFC CEO Dana White to open the idea of retirement to Ferguson. The latest name to reiterate the topic is Askren, who tried to rationalize the suggestion by noting how Pimblett didn’t even give Ferguson a tough fight.
“He says he wants to keep fighting,” Askren told Middle Easy. “Is it a monetary thing where he needs to keep fighting for money? I don’t know, but Paddy does not seem to be that good. He really doesn’t. And Tony, he just couldn’t get off his back. I don’t know what his plan was. He is a wrestler. He grew up wrestling.
“He knows how to get up. That’s folkstyle wrestling, but he chose to just be on his back for the entirety of the second and third round, right? It’s like, dude, get up. Maybe even take him down. Paddy is not an elite wrestler. You should be able to go get a takedown on this dude. Make it happen.”
In the end, Askren recalled Ferguson’s past and current records, suggesting the era of “El Cucuy” has finally ended.
“His trajectory is so insane,” Askren added. “He was like, 13-0, or whatever the hell he was for a while, and now he’s 0-7. It’s like, yeah, you need to be done, buddy.”
Despite this, Ferguson earlier shared a post online to fans, whom he urged to “keep the faith,” suggesting he’s still not ready to hang up the gloves.
“Love my fans & supporters,” Ferguson wrote on Instagram. “You all are f*ckin’ fire. Met lots of you tonight, keep the faith MF’s. One foot in front of the other b*tches, remember what I said crew – Champ.”
As we noted before, while this sounds like good news to Ferguson’s fans, it doesn’t mean the fighter would still get another fight from the UFC. With his seven-fight losing skid and White’s sentiment over the matter, it would probably be difficult for the UFC veteran to convince the promotion to book him again. Nonetheless, as famous MMA trainer Javier Mendez believes, there are still other options for Ferguson, including the BKFC.
