With team behind him at UFC 279, Tony Ferguson calls welterweight home: 'I'm here to collect'
LAS VEGAS – Tony Ferguson doesn’t recall the immediate aftermath of being on the receiving end of Michael Chandler’s vicious front-kick knockout in May at UFC 274. He doesn’t remember being on the stool, or hearing Chandler announced as the winner, or being consoled by Chuck Liddell on his way out of the octagon.
It wasn’t until he exited Phoenix’s Footprint Center that things started to come into focus.
“I remember walking out towards the ambulance, and I was like, ‘Oh sh*t, yeah, you lost. F*ck,'” Ferguson (25-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at UFC 279 media day on Wednesday. “Went back to the drawing board for two months, started lifting heavy, because I knew what I was gonna do subconsciously.”
What the former UFC interim lightweight champion “was gonna do” and ultimately did was decide to move up to welterweight, and he meets Li Jingliang (19-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC) in the co-main event of Saturday night’s pay-per-view at T-Mobile Arena.
It’ll be Ferguson’s first fight at 170 pounds since he won “The Ultimate Fighter 13” as a welterweight back in 2011, and he feels good about it.
“One-seventy is home. Love it,” Ferguson said. “This is where I hang my hat. I’m 14-2 with mostly knockouts at 170. So, like I said, it’s where I hang my hat. A hundred-and-55 is home, too, so I’m here to collect.”
Just how chill is Ferguson this fight week with his return to 170 pounds? For starters, there isn’t a big weight cut to worry about. He’s enjoyed a slushy and soda this week, he said.
“It’s different now. I put deodorant on,” Ferguson said. “We’re cool now. We’re cleaning it up. We’re gonna go in there and have some fun. You guys are gonna see old-school T.”
Part of that feeling stems from a change of scenery. In the wake of the knockout loss to Chandler, Ferguson expressed a desire to join a team – which he hadn’t been part of for years – and settled on the famed Jackson Wink MMA in Albuquerque N.M.
Ferguson said that, prior to joining Jackson Wink, he hadn’t trained in a cage or sparred “in five or six years.” He’d only been training on a wrestling mat. It’s been a different experience, but it was just what the 38-year-old was looking for.
“I went fishing,” Ferguson said. “What I got was a bunch of trainers that I believe in. I’ve always had my eye on a couple of people. I’m like a scout. I know what the f*ck to look for. … I got some really good people that are helping me open my eyes with some things that I cannot see, which is the trust. It helps to be able to be in an octagon, get some sparring in and get the great training that I really need.”
And as for what Ferguson expects in his attempt to snap a four-fight losing streak against the larger Jingliang?
“Li likes to scrap, man. Obviously, he knows I like to scrap,” Ferguson said. “We’re gonna go in there, we’re gonna impress a lot of people, toe to toe, balls to walls, and we’re gonna go in and make some fireworks for you f*ckers.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 279.