“Give him some respect”- Chael Sonnen weighs in on Khabib Nurmagomedov claiming Tony Ferguson should retire

Khabib Nurmagomedov, recently discussed a myriad of topics in several media interactions with RT Sport. In one such interaction, Khabib claimed that his ‘cursed-nemesis’ Tony Ferguson must retire from the sport of MMA. He justified his stance saying that Ferguson had been putting on repeated lacklustre performances of late, and was dominated by all of his previous three opponents.

Here is what Khabib said: “He is 38 years old, Tell me how he can make a comeback? He was dominated in his last three bouts. Different styles – a striker, a grappler… Dariush, Oliveira, Gaethje, all dominated him both standing up and on the ground. When you are 38, I believe, you have to pull the brakes and there have to be people around him to say: ‘Hey, you are ageing, you have to stop.’”

Former UFC fighter and current analyst Chael Sonnen weighed in on Khabib’s comments. He wasn’t particularly happy about ‘someone retired’ asking someone as active as Tony Ferguson to retire. Branding them as ‘other noises’, Sonnen gave his own insight about how stacked Tony’s last three opponents were. Uncle Chael pointed out that two of them went on to become champions after beating ‘El Cucuy’. (Justin Gaethje – Interim and Charles Oliveira -Lightweight).

“I wanna encourage Tony Ferguson” – Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen was quoted as saying, “So, the number one thing that Tony needs to do right now, is to not listen to this other noise…I don’t think Tony is slow. I know he still works hard. He is in damn good shape. There have been times where he has cooperated in my opinion.” [h/t firstsportz]

He continued, “And, there is another side, where he has stacked the deck against himself, or he has had it stacked against him, in the level of competition he has to take on. Of his last three opponents, two of them are world champions. In all fairness, give Tony some due here. Give him a little credit for going out there in the first place. Give him a little respect…So, you wanna be a d*** about it and tell him he can’t do it or you wanna encourage a guy, and elevate him a little bit…I wanna encourage Tony Ferguson.” [h/t firstsportz]

Although, Ferguson was dominated in his last three fights, he showed the heart of a true champion. He never went down tame to all three of them. Especially during his fight against Oliveira, where he almost had his arm broken – still did not tap. Sonnen might be having a point here.

As Uncle Chael claims, will things work in Tony’s favour if he matches up with an opponent who is a step down from the previous opponents of his? Or should he have to change his entire camp?

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