Tony Ferguson: 'At This Time in My Life I'm Just Barely Hitting My Prime' | UFC 291

oh man Latonya back again uh another big fight of course everybody's looking forward to I guess what's the energy it seems seems pretty upbeat right now what's the energy for you ahead of this one oh man it feels great I just got back from Big Bear uh it was really good camp I put on some new muscle I didn't think I could be possible but leg did I understand why everybody avoids that now uh listen you're a must be loved figure in the sport man I know there was an arrest in May and people were kind of worried about you what's what's his health like what's his life like what can you say about that and kind of where you are overall well I'm gonna be real with you there's a whole bunch of slander and a whole bunch of that probably shouldn't have been down but you know what I mean there's gonna be some lawsuits and some other that's going down so you guys really want to get into it I've always taken heat from the media I've always taken heat from the media and I'm telling you guys which is funny you want to laugh about it which is kind of cool but you guys weren't there I was there so I know what the is going on I pay attention to what I had to do and I'm gonna be real with you I'm here at UFC 291 because I asked for this fight now I never really asked for fights because I'm always just getting handed or I'm always getting handed I'm cool though I'm gonna be really true I feel I feel really good I went out there and I trained my ass off I made it possible because I trusted my team to get me there I brought my coach in from Grand Valley State University which has been my coach for 18 years so he regulated my recovery regulated my output and everything else we needed to and we're out there scouting bear I don't know if you guys see my pages and stuff but we had a bear that was around our camp right and so I ended up deciding if I can go and track it down so we found his water hole we found everything else like I'm a Hunter you guys don't really realize that I started hunting when I was little but I just don't like to kill I like to track and Bobby I utilized this whole entire Camp to be like a sniper you gotta find your end you got to find you out and you got to have your route and you have to make sure that you're gonna get the job done so I'm out there doing my right now and I'm very well conditioned so if you don't like to hear what the I have to say so you when you say you're tracking a bear where you're out there like with weapons or anything are you just out there hands and feet and there's blades and shades I don't around so when it goes out there when it talks to me and everything else like that you know what I mean I have to protect my Camp so when I'm out there my family was out there too and they went and they walked I had my wife and my kid when we're tracking I had two different places I had one on the south part of the hill and I had one at the top of the north part so I had two points of access so when we were out there and we saw the cans going out there it used to be funny when we used to say hey you know what if you guys have a chance you see a bear run down the hill as fast you can well it turned into reality when my guy over here he actually got he rolled in right and it was the same time when he rolled into the same time I saw the bear and we scouted him and I ended up doing it like you you know topography Maps right yeah regular maps topography Maps is where it's at you can tell elevation everything I found his water table and I found it where he was sitting and I was by my other my other house and the way that he was routing everybody would always leave their trash in these bins you're supposed to take care of your and the trash pans would always be over but I saw that he was rounding out he's going further and further out getting closer and closer and closer I can so I told my coach I was like let's Scout him and my coaches got back from Africa and hunting and he just killed a couple wildebeest and some Sables and some other and that's where my trip is going to be next and so um it's a little different man I told him I was like let's go let's go bait this bear and we actually did and we caught him in our trash it was funny as I mean does anybody say how about we just stay inside Tony and not do that no because immediately as soon as we saw what do we do I made everybody go for a walk with me and it was in the middle of nothing and we all lost power for how long like almost a day so when we lost power I mean I had no AC I put myself in the worst position possible to go my Camp was really cool I'm going to be real with you they had the nicer cabin myself and my wife and my kids we had the one which wasn't so nice because I needed to have that I need to get back to Rocky style where I needed to get that Grunge and again and what the bearing was crew it wasn't like I wanted to go and hurt him but I wanted to scout him I wanted to see how how good I was and I'm pretty good found his water table found his food supply found out where his route was found everything that was and then boom there it goes and on our way out he gave us a little salute that's wild so you said you asked for this fight was it you asked for this matchup or you asked for just like this date this this uh you know this event I asked for the fight I asked for a fight I want to get back into it but I want to get back into it wholeheartedly last couple of fights I haven't really been in it I mean it'd be real with you guys trying to impress you is not my forte I'm gonna be real with it I'm not trying to do that but when we're preparing for Lee I was eating slushies that week you know when we had Nate Nate was hard to take serious it was almost like I didn't want to lose but I'm gonna be real like here take your Victory get the out of here and go make some money here let me slap you on your ass you can go over there dude because you obviously don't want to be here I've helped out the UFC plenty of times got in pain I did my taking my res remodeling my house I'm trying to figure out what the you want to do I bought a business for my retirement out of manufacturing I have one of the oldest manufacturing businesses for wrestling equipment and I'm making machines it's funny so everybody's all talking about Boston Dynamics I'm the kind of guy that types of that helps you prepare for that Bobby green uh veteran of the sport obviously uh entertaining style I mean what are you expecting the way you guys match up it seems like it could be a pretty wild fight in there I think he's a confused individual I think he doesn't know what the hell that guys can expect from me you know that type of guy is kind of that one where you really don't understand it he texted me on Father's Day and it said uh maybe Bobby green I already knew I had a contact so before we had the same sponsor from King of the cage a long time if I met him and he was with this lady it had no animosity it was a screw and you know say what's up and even after his land of another fight he comes back and you smiling hey good job you know kind of like that when I was about ready to walk out of mine and then he texted me on Father's Day when I'm enjoying my family time saying hey is this el Cucuy Happy Father's Day I told him I already knew it was him and then he said beforehand I texted him he texted me twice more and he said uh hey yo this is your opponent I already knew really afterwards he said Happy Father's Day now I'm not gonna call him a ass but I just saw him in the lobby not too long ago Mr flashy it's cool it's just things it's your key I get you but when he saw me he looked like he saw the fourth Horseman of death it's kind of crazy and I explained to people too when people get quiet when you walk into a room it's different when you have to demand presence but I don't really demand presence but everybody gets quiet when I walk into a room that dude was really quiet last thing for me Tony what does this fight represent for you right because you said you kind of weren't really into the last ones and you made all the sacrifices and made All the Right Moves so what does this win mean for you because it's about proven sons of yourself to other people what does this mean for you I want to win you got to realize it dude I'm not used to losing I mean I'll tell you I'll show you guys like from I've been competing in sports since I was third like maybe four five I've been competing in sports for 30 plus years at the highest level I mean talking about state championships and football baseball wrestling national championship and wrestling could have chose different sport could have been baseball could have been football could have went on did this stuff I chose wrestling which was cool because I had an opportunity after wrestling went over here and did this stuff man you get burned out pandemic took a full pandemic for me to lose my 12 fight winning streak I'm not angry at it took you know but I had to fire some coaches I had to fire some people because I was trying to get them back and they weren't good for me it was toxic it was toxic to me and I didn't realize it how much I was looking forward to that you know I I can go and reiterate on some things but I won't but what I'll say is my focus is back and it's not like oh deadly there's no it's the focus is back if I'm sending my people out there to go and like to the wrestling or in football or whatever it is I got to make sure that I play my part I got to make sure I maintain my Lane I got to make sure I do my and last a couple fights I hadn't been doing that I've been helping people up helping them up trying to help these Fighters up and coming you know I got a couple boxes couple of MMA fighters I've been looking after I had to say you know what I have to excuse myself for a second I got to quit helping all these different types of people and I have to help myself and the way that you do that is by getting the work is by getting it done my coach always says nobody ever drown a sweat which is pretty cool and I'm gonna be real with you I had to get back to that kind of moment and mentality of it where we're two-time national champions at gvsu man I'm gonna be real and I had to realize that what kind of an athlete I am I'm gonna bring that this weekend tell me right here can you talk about uh graduating from Harvard because that seemed to be a big story one it came up people weren't you didn't even know you were back in school or anything well the funny part was I didn't really graduate from Harvard it's a program and I'm still in still in and that's awesome it's a Harvard HBS it's a continued education type of thing um it's badass everything that I've seen the UFC going through from the time that I first started all the way through here I mean you just wait my business and everything else where I'm at in this moment of life like I said I just secured my retirement for that you don't have UFC uh matching my numbers you know if I'm buying stock they're not matching my stock they're not they're not looking for my 401k they're not doing that maybe if I plant this seed now it will because last time I said the insurance thing what happened it went right I'm a trendsetter what I did at HBS was just to go back to school so my kid could understand that you have to make the grade to play so you're talking about me getting my homework from HBS Harvard Business School doing the same time my kids doing his homework and then I'm making him go to the academy with me then I'm telling him like this is this is how it goes it never stops it never stops you can say it right how long have I been saying I want to continue education long time everybody yeah sure Tony whatever man it's easy as I want to go back I want to get my doctorate so that's another challenge for myself when I keep challenging myself and I keep setting these goals that keeps me going for a long time I was just floating there my mom would always say your flow when you tie you back down here for a second I get it but no I'm a dreamer I'm a big dreamer and I dream big I want to have my my machines in every single UFC gym and I guarantee it's going to happen I'm going to be real with you Matt Sarah says he wants to be the first customer I'm like you know what you got to stand in line because Kerry Colette from University of Wyoming he's got two on the way and I got a couple from a couple other universities I wanted to become a scout and I am a scout up and coming Fighters and all these talent that coming up and sometimes they just don't know how to get access to this this agency right here well it doesn't have to be just this agency but I love this agency and I work for it right now so that's what I do is I I secure this position so if I ever wanted to see a fighter an up-and-coming athlete do whatever I make a phone call to these guys at these universities that I have all these contacts for and they trust me because I work my ass off and the guy that I bought the company from coach catcher badass is Dan Gable's roommate and I brought him over there right and I got some really cool words and I got to um I got to be in his Apprentice for like a week learning how to build these things and just learning the just complete I can't explain it when you have people that have experience in a sport that you have and it's just amazing like just the amount of like information that you can up like just download through it just always always and somebody that doesn't look at your questions like they're stupid and they're like they're giving you information that's value like I do that I give away millions of dollars of information inspiration on my Instagram page you guys have no idea how far that goes look at there's a new Turtles movie coming out right yeah right I mean there's a bunch of stuff that goes out there I'm not saying I'm the one but I'm gonna be real with you when it goes into music taste and Trends and like that that's awesome but you can't force it and it'll be real so I'm here this week not forcing anything I did all the work HBS I love HPS I'm still there I'm still doing keep in touch with my advisors in the UFC I just gave Dana Knuckles and I told him I was like you know that's boat move signing up with the WWE because everybody wants to copy the NFL now NFL wanted to get to what 27 Bill per capita by no 29 bill by 27. and what UFC just go in with the wmeie right and they were about like 23. so I mean if you wanted to get there and then you wanted to create leagues and you wanted to actually get paid and so on and so forth it's the right way so my facility is still standing right it was the only one that didn't close during the pandemic I got my Coach Dave Mills and I got a couple other coaches and Associates that I'm going to be doing some really big things in the next couple years hope that answered your question only who will be in your corner on Saturday all right Coach Dave Mills I got my trainer uh and buddies I have Juan Gomez Another coach and I have Jeremiah Vance another trainer and coach and I also have Brandon Gibson here as well he'll be here tonight so I didn't hear you picking to win between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler I hope they knock each other the out I was supposed to coach on The Ultimate Fighter I can't hate on it but I was supposed to coach on The Ultimate Fighter against khabibir police off on his World Tour still and uh I guess whatever he had happening he didn't have enough balls to go and Coach his cousin so I already knew that there was something pretty major that hadn't up happening so around that time we were in November when I knew that we were going to coach against him I had meetings with with Hunter and so on and so forth and this was this was a game dude I did everything I needed to do in order to get to be back but he ran away like a so you could be this was his last season you were going to coach it against me yeah you guys didn't even know that did you nope nobody knew that but that's the behind the scenes type of stuff that's the kind of the talks that I have with the brass that's the kind of talks that I have that you guys have no idea of a relationship that I have with them and it's cool as because when you're clutch like me you get to kind of talk a little bit and lastly brought about Nate the guy he said you know you slapped him on the ass and tell him away he's now fighting Jake Paul do you think he slept set him out with a victory to get against Jake or do you think he might probably knock each other the out I I'm gonna be real like I don't give a they wanted me to do some like some some betting thing to get paid through sponsor talk about the fight I hope they knock each other the out I hope they make money doing it and I hope that you know the next generation is not a bunch of that they follow the suit that I'm following because I got a lot of these older dudes like Don Frye Chuck Liddell that are looking at me to carry that that flag and then one day pass it on but it ain't happening any time soon do you also hope Dustin and Justin knock each other the absolutely double knockout it's up trying to watch my language guys you guys just keep following you just keep balling you came in and called us that was the first thing he said you know I want to be rude with you guys it's always been cool and then um I feel at this point in time in my life that I'm just barely hitting my Prime which is crazy and one of my coaches won he was uh earlier we were doing Mitch between interviews and I had I told him I was I've been getting up early and I just you know I have to lay down I was like I know I have to lay down and I got up and I did my interview and I was like hey is the room open he said everybody went down there and said yeah I said I'll be right there and bring your minutes didn't even wrap up I went and I hit the pads and I'm sharp I'm real sharp right now I'm just the sharp as I look baby Tony just one more um everyone looks at the record you know sees the five losses but we know the level of competition you say you're feeling like you're in your Prime so like what do you feel about your future in the sport is it safe to say like no amount of setbacks or anything are going to push you out it's only gonna who counted all of my wins in my lifetime and you counted all of my losses I'm gonna be real with you even from college and football and baseball and all that there's not much it was probably less than 20 man like I'm gonna be maybe 25. something like that I mean most of it's all green or blue like you know what I mean it was like all wins wins wins there was hardly any Reds but if there was it was like a hiccup it took a big hiccup for me to get my together which was I needed to get my own nobody else was gonna tell me they could propose it they could say oh Tony's going whatever he's going to retire no you I'm gonna be done when I want to be done but I'm also going to have to do what I have to do in order to get to where I want to get five fights in a title baby I'm out

Channel: UFC

Views: 218,592

Keywords: ufc, mma, ultimate fighting championship, The, Ultimate, Fighter, fight, night, fighter, bout, kick, punch, knockout, ko, finish, win, best, of, highlight, main, event, co-main, card, competition, tune, in, president, dana, white, before, team, division, opponent, matchup, MMA, tony, ferguson, ufc 291

Id: Y51BcmFma_g

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2023