Tony Ferguson won’t retire when he’s the BOAT

After he set the new record for most consecutive UFC losses, it looked like the no-brainer thing was coming next: Tony Ferguson was going to retire.

If nothing else, a cynic might say, using his UFC on ABC 7 first-round submission loss to Michael Chiesa (17-7 MMA, 12-7 UFC) might be a good time for Ferguson (25-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC) to say publicly he’s calling it quits – rather than go through the potential sting of hearing from the UFC he’s not wanted back.

But when Chiesa yielded most of his time on the microphone, on a nationally televised event on ABC, so Ferguson could retire – rather than enjoy the immediate on-camera spoils of his first win in 3.5 years – Ferguson had a change of heart. He said he would put one of his gloves down and keep the other – so he could symbolically keep the door open for the next fight.

The odds of that coming in the UFC have to be slim. But then again, so, too, were the odds that he’d get a shot at snapping a five-fight UFC skid, or six-fight UFC skid, or this current shot at snapping the seven consecutive losses that had him tied with B.J. Penn for one of the most dubious stats in the record books. Most fighters don’t make it past three straight losses in the UFC, let alone four, five

The UFC even gave Ferguson, who turned 40 in February, a post-fight news conference in Abu Dhabi (H/T The MacLife), at which he said if the UFC won’t bring him back on an eight-fight skid, more than five years after his most recent win, then he’ll move on.

“(If the UFC doesn’t want me back), then we go figure out something else,” Ferguson said. “If those fans out there are willing to spend thousands of dollars and fly and come watch me compete somewhere, I guaran-f*cking-tee you they’re going to follow me somewhere. And that’s the humblest thing I can f*cking say, because no matter where I’m at, no matter what I’m doing, I’m going to get better and better and better.”

UFC on ABC 7 at Etihad Stadium in Abu Dhabi was just Ferguson’s second time fighting outside the U.S. Umar Nurmagomedov and Shara Magomedov fought in the main event and co-feature, respectively. Both fighters have big fan bases in the Middle East region where Saturday’s card took place.

Ferguson said he missed the days of wearing wrestling shoes, and that future opportunities could lie in being able to lace them up again. To wit, bareknuckle boxers in the BKFC must wear wrestling or boxing shoes in their fights. Ferguson long has been known for getting into battles, and that style lends itself nicely to the BKFC.

And if the UFC doesn’t want him back, then Ferguson thinks the company would be passing up on something beyond even proverbial GOAT talk.

“I have a lot of gold medals,” Ferguson said. “I have some silver, and I have some bronze, and now I have a couple losses. I’ve got a couple records. I’ve got Performance of the Nights. I’ve got finishes of the nights, I’ve got f*cking every little side quest that there is in this sport.

“Who the f*ck else is going to do that? Only a BOAT, dog. That’s the only sh*t. GOATs come and go, and BOATs – they float. And I think that’s why a lot of you fans like me, is because I’m always talking sh*t, I’m always going to be me, and I know what the f*ck I’ve done in this sport.”

Ferguson, who won Season 13 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” once had a 12-fight winning streak that included an interim lightweight title and nine post-fight bonuses. His wins in that stretch included finishes of Edson Barboza, Kevin Lee, Anthony Pettis and Donald Cerrone and a decision over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in Mexico, which before Saturday was the only other time Ferguson had an MMA fight outside the U.S.

His eight-fight skid stretches back to May 2020 when he lost an interim lightweight title fight to Justin Gaethje. A win would have set up, at long last, a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov. If Ferguson is known for something other than his 12 up, 8 down teeter-totter, it may be for his four booked-and-scrapped fights with Nurmagomedov.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ABC 7.