“Tony is a great fighter but his age is creeping up on him” – Josh Thomson gives his honest verdict on Tony Ferguson


“Tony is a great fighter but his age is creeping up on him” – Josh Thomson gives his honest verdict on Tony Ferguson

Tony Ferguson and Josh Thomson

Former mixed martial artist and current MMA analyst Josh Thomson gave his verdict on Tony Ferguson. Thomson, during his tenure, was known for his tough-as-nails attitude. He was a part of umpteen dog fights, one of which, earned him the Strikeforce Lightweight championship as well.

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With a record of 22 wins and 9 losses, Thomson retired from mixed martial arts at the age of 38, after having competed in numerous elite MMA promotions viz. Strikeforce, UFC and Bellator. In a recent chat with John McCarthy, Josh Thomson revealed how a fight against Tony Ferguson back in July 2015 turned out to be life-changing.

Speaking about the fight, Thomson said, “My career changed after the Tony Ferguson fight. I didn’t like to be hit, I hated training, I didn’t like to be sparred. I didn’t want to be hit by anybody. It was one of those life-changing fights wherein training, it was no longer fun anymore. And that’s hard for fighters to swallow...It only takes a fight like a Tony Ferguson fight to change your life. To change the way your career goes.”

Following the Tony fight, Thomson left the UFC and joined Bellator. He won his first two matches in the promotion, before being knocked out by Patricky Freire at Bellator 172, in what would be his last fight.

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“Tony is the age I was when he fought Justin” – Josh Thomson

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Josh Thomson’s reply to FirstSportzMMA

In a recent comment, Thomson dropped on FirstSportz MMA’s Instagram page, the former fighter compared his own battle against Tony Ferguson to Ferguson vs Justin Gaethje in 2020. ‘El Cucuy’, on a twelve-fight winning streak, took on Gaethje at UFC 249 for the interim lightweight title. He was badly battered by Gaethje, only to be TKOed in the fifth and final round.

Comparing the two, Thomson wrote, “It’s the age. Tony is the age I was when he fought Justin. Tony is a great fighter but his age is creeping up on him and battles aren’t the same at that age.”

Who knows better about MMA than a fighter himself? Since that loss, Ferguson has never looked the same. He was mauled in his next two fights, against Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush. A man who had never lost two fights in a row, is now on a three-fight skid. Can Tony bounce back?

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