Tony Ferguson Talks Paddy Pimblett, Mental Conditioning, and More | The MMA Hour

oh I can't wait for this uh he's one of the great characters and one of the great fighters in the history of the sport of mixed martial arts he returns to action on December 16th at UFC 296 in Las Vegas against Patty pimble a fight that has captured the imagination of the community everyone has a take on this one I can't wait to hear Tony's Take on it here he is El koui himself Tony Ferguson Tony my old friend how are you good my friend how are you I'm doing great thank you so much for joining I know you don't do a lot of these so I really appreciate it uh this is a big one could I ask first and foremost let's actually start in Salt Lake City uh I know afterwards you were a little disappointed about what happened and you you kind of brought the lights tiny uh how how are your eyes how's everything afterwards were there any serious injuries after that fight against Bobby green uh at first it was kind of blurry little bit of double um kind of not freaking out but it was a little bit kind of just worrying about it couple weeks went by and everything started clearing up everything's pretty good A little bit blurry but no big deal I'm going to be real with it so um slightly disappointed in the loss but we learn we live and we learn was there any talk about immediately rematching because you felt like it uh you know it didn't end the way it should have end where was there any talk on your end the UFC's end about running it back I think everybody just kind of left me alone they knew I was pretty pissed off about it um no real big talks about it but I know that obviously the brass you know what I mean like I don't know if they want me to win or lose but I don't think they ever want me to lose same thing with the fans and I'm just glad that we went out there we actually competed I mean a guy like me with a bunch of losses like that you know what I mean a lot of people want to start talking about getting cut or retirement or doing whatever I just been really just focusing on myself uh finding my smiles and making sure that everything all my ducks are in a row and making sure that um I'm mentally and physically and emotionally focused on this next one and that was really what this time was about was making sure that I could get myself back to where I needed to be in competition wise and not just taking fights and then just randomly going out there putting myself in shitty positions um the last couple of fights I've really done that um fights before that I would really do that put myself in uncom compromisable positions just to create opportunity and not really capitalize off of it but that goes right into training with it so right now I'm in a good spot do you have any regrets when you talk about like things that you did in the previous fights no regts no man not one bit I went out there the fans are just amazing win or lose they just been [ __ ] hype I can't believe it and um no man I love going out there I love competing I love competing against these International Fighters that's one of the biggest things I love to do um chasing after khaber once in a while and McNuggets obviously that got old really fast uh once kabib retired and that kind of [ __ ] went everything the energy level and everything off the training for that [ __ ] dude but it's still tiit Tuesdays McNugget Mondays so maybe once these guys grow some balls they'll come back to the game but um for right now like I'm gonna be real it's uh I'm with my old team and the last time I was with my old team we were slicing and dicing [ __ ] up uh the last time we competed with my old team was ET and Barbosa wow so you're talking about yeah you're talking about I haven't really sparred or or moved around and done I've said it many many times but in the reality I've been going over there I've been getting my padwork from my my boy Tyler wbl at Classic fight team and it's not it's like we never missed a beat it's uh completely different than the last couple of couple of years of pad sessions and just training and training partners and it's a it's an eye opener to what I have missed and I have let myself not let myself go but with pandemic it hit me pretty hard man um I had my team set and you know we had had a 12 fight win streak but I never really talked about it how hard that really impacted me when my team broke apart but it [ __ ] sucked and then trying to put people together to uh keep that [ __ ] going man it was almost like kind of like a relationship you sometimes you just got to say bye and then just move on and uh I think finally I did that and I'm able to trust again which is very hard for a guy like me because everybody looks at me like a superhero they always look like I have the right answer and I usually do I I usually like to the right answer but this time I asked for help and I asked for the right help not just with Tyler but a lot of other people um including my agents and uh family friends and it's been a blessing to be able to listen and to be able to comprehend and then understand what I have to do in order to get back to where I want to be uh I think all of this is uh music to all your fans ears and you have a ton of them as you know um on the Monday after the Bobby green fight you posted on social media like you're not going anywhere so enough of this talk did that thought of leaving the UFC or doing something else did it ever cross your mind a change of scenery did you think about any of that absolutely not I love the UFC I mean I started from the very bottom mail room all the way up I tried out three three times for The Ultimate Fighter and uh I try to explain to my kid that you know like on Instagram and everything else it looks like everybody gets it done the first time but then you know I show them a bunch of things where people they f they fail they fail they fail until they get something right and just like a good experiment or you know when the light bulb or whatever that came up people just didn't come over that overnight it took many many years to be able to do this a lot of failed attempts and um I'm not ready to retire you know getting cut was never in my thought process retiring was never in my thought process only thing that was in my thought process is what the [ __ ] are you doing get your [ __ ] [ __ ] in the gear do what you have to do train the way you [ __ ] need to train like quit [ __ ] horsing around like quit you know like qu trying to help so many [ __ ] people and help yourself get to where you [ __ ] need to be so that way you can help other people and I really put myself in gear and uh like I said it's not easy doing what we do inside that cage it takes a lot of [ __ ] balls but we don't have the only occupation where it takes balls so I'm I'm blessed to be able to do it I do and um like I said it's never been a thought in my head that to retirement I've been competing for 35 years Ariel I don't know anything different but to win and to Lo or not lose but I know how to lose losing is not I don't like to lose I [ __ ] hate losing but I do know how to lose I don't like to be a sore loser but I know how to get back on my bike and I know how to get going forward and I know a lot of times when I was training I always want to box I want a box I love wrestling I love wearing shoes you know competing in all my sports I always wore shoes never wore shoes in MMA which is crazy and uh I never practice in the cage the only time I'm in the cage is during the fight and the only time I'm really sparring is in the fight so there's a lot of different factors that I can check off and I might have said this before my other fights so you always hear that oh you've said this before yeah but there's a difference between saying it and then actually doing it and instead of partially doing it is doing it how you're supposed to and um that's where I'm at right now and I got I got people checking on me making sure they're like hey when are we going to do this when are we going to do this when are we going to do this and when are we going to do this and I'm also coaching football my kids uh L League football team I'm I'm helping out with that and uh it's been freaking awesome to be around a team and I miss that Vibe where it's not just a few people um the game has changed in MMA where it used to be the fertitas used to say you know quit taking pictures with the whole [ __ ] the whole class you don't need to be that the the camps need to be centered around what you're doing and that's what I started doing but the game has changed the game always changes it always evolves and uh now you have a whole bunch of people going out to these big teams and and competing and and practicing and a big dog is gonna think he's a big dog if he's around a bunch of big dogs a big dog is gonna think he's a small dog if he's around a bunch of small dogs I got a German Shepherd that's around a couple french bulldogs and little [ __ ] thinks he can fit through the small doggy door so it's it's it's interesting how that [ __ ] works but I still got the character to do this stuff Ariel um and so could you tell us it was two Fridays ago out of nowhere Dana White announces Tony Ferguson Patty pimblett December 16th uh the last pay-per-view of 2023 and this isn't one that people were talking like rumors whisper like this one came out of nowhere it was like an atomic bomb out of nowhere could you tell us from your perspective how did this come about how did this fight come about did you ask for it did they approach you could you tell us the the back story uh I've been in contact with Hunter Hunter's a good friend of mine the brass have always been pretty cool you know they don't know me anything I don't know them anything I always send Dana a message once in a while and we got a couple mutual friends and Fighters and uh I just I've been real with them I've been as real as I possibly could with them and my agent and my family my wife particularly and my kids and just been real honest with them and myself and I've been digging deep man I really dug deep to what I really needed to do found myself emotionally and learned how to smile again especially in this sport especially after six losses you would think that you would just give up go hide and be depressed and go sleep all the time and do all this other [ __ ] that a lot of people would do I mean I've seen these guys retire off of like maybe two [ __ ] fight losses and say they don't have it anymore or whatever the [ __ ] I'm like like look at them and I'm just like geez old paks man like what the [ __ ] like slap yourself around a little bit and get back on the drawing board but you know we just had a kid who hurt his arm um I don't w't say his name but you know shout out to him he was a little stud man and uh you know the whole entire team after the after the the football game when we won they were shouting his name shouting his name shouting his name because we it takes a team like that to be able to push through a lot of stuff through adversity and I have injured myself plenty times to be able to get myself back to where I needed to go and a lot of these fights I I have been hurt but not injured hurt is some again I don't feel a lot of pain like it's just the pain comes from the loss and the days after the loss where it's like [ __ ] man and then you see a lot of people they always leave me like these teardrop emojis or something like that and they say please retire and all this other stuff and I don't even have my family telling me that [ __ ] but sometimes that stuff right there I see it I just want to like reach through that [ __ ] screen be like yo snap the [ __ ] out of it you know what I mean quit leaving these [ __ ] messages qu being so damn depressed you guys are like depressed why because one person out there is doing something and you're gonna let that affect you [ __ ] no dude like I had to kind of think about like how inspirational the stuff that we do in the UFC is uh it's not just myself it's the UFC and what we do inside there and uh never really sat there and thought about you know the wins losses or the turn like the the the trophies or anything like that I've always just been compete compete compete compete and I know when khabib left uh a little part of me left with that kind of sucked a little bit because we've always had that that I don't want say negative energy but that hyp that was built around that and then when that disappeared and the pandemic hit then [ __ ] team left and then just a whole there was nothing else left for me kind of except what I told myself is I wanted to compete I wanted to compete enough so that way maybe possibly win or lose khabib would come back and we almost coached on The Ultimate Fighter the season where Chandler and McGregor coached uh we were verbally agreed to have coached and um a couple months I think that was like in November and then a couple months passed and he didn't even go Corner makev which is one thing and so he had a lot of different things going on in his life where he had to kind of second guess himself and not want to come back so that was like another bummer I was like [ __ ] okay really and so I had to find myself and kind of like I said let go of a couple things because I mean anger is not one thing you want to keep holding on to you know and then that frustration that comes with it when you don't have that ability to take care of business or to make that amend um you I still don't want to shake the fucker's hand he's still fat in my book and Conor's still a [ __ ] little [ __ ] too but at the end of the day there's another day the next day so that's preparing for whatever is going to be coming next are you still holding out hope yeah it does uh are you still holding out hope that you can coach opposite him if you can't fight him is that still something that you're you're hoping will happen now you know what T Su Tuesday is always GNA exist like I said in Mondays are Mondays that shit's always going to exist you know I've planted that with CSO and all these different types of Brands and I I don't give a [ __ ] anymore what I want to do is I do want to coach a season I really do I'm I'm a great coach I know I'm a great coach because I've had great coaching um I've listened to all my coaches I still keep in contact with most of my coaches even my old football coach from when I first started football I just saw him he lost his son little Randy um I won't say his last name but he lost his son he Ed on some stupid [ __ ] and uh I went back home and I saw him you know through the gra Vine I you know I heard and I contacted my friend went over to his family's house think you know thankfully and then saw saw him I was like coach and he had a big old smile on his face and he like you still calling me coach like hell yeah man like you guys set the pace a lot of a lot of these coaches had set the pace for me and I'm lucky that my family the same thing anytime that I was either injured or um you know I transferred school one time and I couldn't play for a whole semester that was football or wrestling but I still went to practice I still suited up every [ __ ] game and I I went like as if I was going to play but I never got the chance to play I couldn't play because there was rules but I never knew anything else to not sit on the sidelines I was always up by the coach always not trying to coach I was always there supporting my team and that set something in my mind that is unbreakable and I'm unbreakable arel like I I had to start believing that and I had to start telling myself that again because I wasn't telling myself that I was telling everybody else that I'm hyping everybody else up including friends family fight whatever the [ __ ] whoever it is lots of loved ones but I had to finally start telling myself that because I started to see myself kind of go like this a little bit not being happy doing what I'm doing not not competing with the smile not having fun with training always kind of like bummed out every time I would go to my Academy I'd be [ __ ] just like dreading and pissy and just like [ __ ] here we go again cuz have people tell me like why are you training all day when you're wasting your time and you're do and all that [ __ ] [ __ ] got bumbled up in my head where it was just kind of like I stopped believing in myself and it was [ __ ] terrible it was like the worst [ __ ] thing dude just because here I am like listening to these [ __ ] people that have never been to the top of where I have been and they've never been as low as I have ever been so why am I listening to all these people why why am I giving them the time and day if they're telling me this [ __ ] especially if supposed to be trusting them in my Camp [ __ ] that I had to step back away listen to myself listen to some good advice from some good people and really think put my thoughts down on paper you know not just on Instagram but put them on paper think about what I could do make some phone calls ask some questions ask for help and [ __ ] man people kind of like hey we've been waiting for you where you been and that's that's good the A+ right there by the way when you say ask for help um are you like who specifically are you talking about fck my agents my family uh trainers like dude I never asked for help I never asked for help and even just like someone just reaching out man that's all it [ __ ] takes be like hey dude what do you think like and people be like Yo dude you're the [ __ ] Champ like yeah I hear that l lot well come in let's go get some training in well [ __ ] yeah thank you very much that's all I was hoping for thank you very much because I've been doing this [ __ ] by myself not by myself but trying to put everything together or telling people what kind of combos I need to have or what kind of strategy I need to have like I've been doing this for a long time Ariel and for a long time before I've been doing by my not by myself but handling a lot of the managing I've had team and always been kind of shitty when a team breaks apart you know whether you know it might not be your fault half the time it's just people just have a lot of things that they have to take care of you know like rain Training Center when rain Training Center was around I was getting a lot of good wrestling in I was at Classic fight team I was at 10 Planet a lot and everything was local everything was close so I was always going to class consistently and I was always around a lot of big dogs and with that you know you hear cha son all the time besides all the [ __ ] talk now you always hear him say you know and I remember that one time that he was sitting there watching me he said in one interview where he said you know one day I just sat I I stood stood by I just sat down and I just watched Tony train and I knew he was I knew he was watching me train I always pay attention to everything and uh he was the only one there most of the time and I'm hitting the bags and you know he never wanted to you know Spar or nothing you know big guys Spar big guys Brock always told me but I just remember that he was there and and I didn't think anything of it I just kept doing what I was doing but it was always times like that where I was always the most successful because I was always smiling I was always playing my music I was always doing my thing I was always dancing and I was always doing my stuff or po if I was injured I was always posting uh videos of me having fun like a cool down you know and people would think oh Tony's training like this all the time and really not but what it is is my cool down and it's a facade you know it's it's something for everybody to kind of laugh at and at first everybody thought it was cringe but now it's the [ __ ] the meme of the [ __ ] like everybody's doing that stuff now which is cool and you know I wear my sunglasses and everybody's wearing sunglasses you wearing suits and everybody wears suits and [ __ ] so I kind of got played out on my own stuff because everybody started playing on it and I stopped having fun with it and I feel good like I feel really good about where I'm at like instead of having to try to impress people or to do things just because I'm I'm supposed to it's it's because I want to and it's because I have that passion I've always had the passion for it but I have the passion to want to do what I have to do in order to get things done that makes any sense could I ask uh about Eddie Bravo are you back with him yeah coach I always keep in contact with coach and you know it's it's hard because he's always he's in La um but I'm making the I'm making my rounds I just contacted him actually yesterday or two days ago uh we have a set schedule coming up um I just got my striking uh trainer's schedule he's got some grappling in for me and I've got Eddie over there same thing he's got a couple Russians for me over there that are [ __ ] just hardcore amazing and yeah dude it's just there's a lot more that goes into it um but it's going back to mental conditioning about where I'm at you know here I am kicking steel poles and doing all this stuff and everybody's likew how the [ __ ] are you doing this dude like and then you got McGregor McNuggets [ __ ] kicking a concrete [ __ ] and then going and putting a fracture in his leg during a fight where it's a lot of people will emulate what I do but I never copy anybody I I really try not to copy anybody and I try to have my own steo with a lot of stuff so I had a I had to find myself about what I wanted to or how I wanted to go about it do I want to rush into it or do I want to take it step by step by step day by day by day and go about it and right now it's I just got done doing three miles I bear crawled for I don't know how [ __ ] long like I'll send you the pictures of like this park it's [ __ ] crazy long and I I bear crawled all the way to the end of it you know took my breaks never stood up but just kind of like one hand on the ground like a football stance wow and I went all the way through to the end I played I replayed the same [ __ ] song you know like over and over and over all the way to the end and I get up I finally stand up and I look all the way at the other end of the park [ __ ] here we go again and I'm making myself work and I'm actually getting tired doing my own work again and I haven't done that in a long time you know my conditioning is really good and I'll reflect back to the Bobby green fight I went up to Big Bear I hauled up all my stuff trying to emulate the same camp that I did for uh UFC 216 with Kevin Lee and it just wasn't the same it just wasn't the same it was I had people telling me stop running like stop running running like this and I listened like what the [ __ ] why why and I'm trusting this person and I'm just it was kind of like just reaching out for like advice from people that I thought that I could trust and I wasn't getting back the feedback that I really needed um you know it wasn't any body in my camp that that made it any worse or made it bad it was just me and my my ability to put that output that it felt like it it was there but it wasn't I was more worried about my conditioning rather than the fight you know and like I said I put myself in uncompromisable positions like underneath Bobby I I tried to do this one move where it wasn't at imari it was uh I shoot underneath this I saved it for kabib I'll say it right now and I'll do a demonstration now but what I do I Ed I did in break dancing a couple times where I would just shoot underneath the guy's legs I would do like I would and he would look under his legs and I'd be up and like kind of like a boogeyman I would shoot underneath his legs stand up really fast and he would turn around I'd be looking at be like hey and you know pull his shirt over his head and you know pop pop and that was it and I tried to do that to Bobby but that was after the eye poke and it was slow as [ __ ] put myself underneath and never took him seriously when it came to the ground and pound and that kind of thing um but I've always been that guy where if positions weren't that good or just whatever I'd always put myself in a position because I knew that I could get out of it and you know like even when I got choked out like I I knew if I had a little bit more grappling the way I went about doing that I would always choke people out that way with like a Von flu type of es type of move and as soon as I put my I did a [ __ ] stupid ass thing that I did I already knew that it was kind of sunk in and it was [ __ ] man like in there I didn't know I remember how much time was left I know it was short time but it was I put myself in these [ __ ] positions and I'm so tired of it I'm so [ __ ] tired of putting myself in these [ __ ] up positions where it loses me a match it's trying new things in the fight rather than in the practice room and it doesn't start in the fight it starts in the practice room you always have to do it in the practice room and if it doesn't work in the practice room you don't do it on the [ __ ] playing field and uh I think I took my own talent for granted you know hard work be Talent when Talent will work hard and I've always done that if I didn't have more Talent than the other person my hard work was always going to show up and these last couple of fights I just let it slip through my hands man and there you know God has a plan for me and I don't second guess him not one [ __ ] bit that dude scares the [ __ ] out of me can I ask what are your thoughts on Patty pimblett uh I'm not going to say he's a fat [ __ ] just kidding now so Patrick you're talking about Patrick I call him Patrick thing when I called Nate um he's a good fighter he's long rangey lanky he likes to put on his show it's kind of mouthy um obviously he's English I think he used to fight at 145 he 55 tall kind of guy um good submission specialist very be he's on a sixf fight win streak the last fight that he had against Jared Gordon um everybody says that he ended up losing tonight I'm actually going to be watching that fight just been watching a couple highlights of him very beatable guy um six fight win streak versus six loss losing streak which is [ __ ] up but uh I hold a couple records in the UFC now and uh I would like to start that back up that's for sure so the reaction I think from a lot of people was like man I I think you have a very loyal fan base as you know they're like like please don't lose to Patty let's be honest he's a polarizing figure uh some people love him some people don't like him and and I don't think people want you because they feel so strongly about you you've been in the sport for so long you've been in the UFC for so long to get uh you know to get shown up by him have you felt that as well are you feeling a lot of I feel like you have more love going into this fight than your last couple fights combined it's [ __ ] crazy like I love all you supporters and F I don't really call you guys fans I call you guys supporters yeah but you you got they're all super fans man they're all super supporters like it's unbelievable like the amount of love that a lot of people have um I'm not going to question it I say thank you um but I'm all in and I got I have the right help what I need to be able to get this done and to get where I want to go I have enough I have enough trophies but I want one more and it's going to take it's going to take a lot of [ __ ] work a lot of guts um you know Dan Gable said this one thing he's like wrestlers are made it that hard to find alloy called uh guts and it's what it's GNA take it's going to take a lot of that in order to get this done but you know me I'm a conditioning expert so I'm well conditioned for this [ __ ] and uh I'm gonna go in there I'm GNA finish Patty like got I'm not worried about scaring him I'm not worried about being angry trying to go in there with this negative energy like whatever energy that he's going to bring is not going to bring me down I'm going to make sure that I'm so [ __ ] focused with everything that I have that nothing's gonna fase me and that goes into training that doesn't go preparing for the like if you're not preparing right you're not gonna you know anything's can get you like God I already feel strong right now and we got 11 weeks left so bring Patty being practic and and just curious when you uh when you envision when you envision finishing him are you talking submission or are you talking KO well gonna be real um my last couple of fights in my wrestling I've just always put opportunity you know because I've always said I've been a like I'm a good wrestler Ariel like I'm a I'm a really good wrestler like I don't it's different in MMA you don't have shoes and the rules are a lot different you put yourself on the bottom you get hit you know like with Bobby I would be real it was kind of weird we were in the back preparing excuse me we're in the back preparing and the guy comes through and he says hey you guys got about 15 20 minutes the fight just got on um he's like and when they raise their hand you guys will be out next that fight went quick yeah it was like the fight it was like one minute so I didn't really get to my wrestling coach I got to Gibson Juan uh Jeremiah and I was waiting for my coach coach Mills so that way we could go over some wrestling stuff or movement drills whatever it was never got the chance so when I took Bobby down or uh you know pick up and return drills if the guy stands up you pick him up and return like kator kakuno when I got to him I picked them up really fast and I you know he didn't stand up to return him you know but that's what it was as soon as I get behind somebody I'm picking them up and I'm throwing them down I'm getting my two points that's it if I need to let him go I let him go I'll take him down again when I got to Bobby I was more worried about taking his [ __ ] back I threw my hooks in and I tried to do the seat belt right away and I every time I watched that part because I got in on the takedown fast like really easy I didn't even need to do anything it was just like a it was almost like a double off it was like a single leg doubling off and we got to the cage threw in the [ __ ] hooks threw in one hook didn't pick him up didn't return slam him and there was that chance um but like I said it goes a lot into review where in the camp if you're starting if you're doing that in Camp you're going to do that in the fight instead of waiting last minute instead of cramming for a test you're studying the the whole entire thing and uh you know I try to tell my kid the same thing which is cool because after he gets out of school we're always doing homework before he goes to football before he does anything he's always doing his stuff he's eating right you know he's getting his rest he always he wants to fight I'm like hey now you know when I brought him to Mu Tha the other day train one of my trainers he actually gave him pads and I give him pads and the kick and [ __ ] hit but I want him to learn other sports like Hey look it's not just about this like in order if you want to do this you got to go through these steps at least for underneath my roof you know you have to get go and do that and then he's got his little brother Angel so our man Anthony and then you have Angel Anthony and little angel he's wearing my kids helmet like he's a big two-year-old he's wearing his stuff wearing the shoulder pads wearing the helmet he sees his brother do that and they see me do what I have to do so that's more of like a [ __ ] get off your ass and get to work kind of attitude now it should have been like that a while ago but now I still I have that [ __ ] right now and I'm glad I really do uh I don't want to keep you much longer and I really appreciate this Tony it's great to talk to you and it's great to see that you're in such a great spot I just want to ask you a couple more and then I'll let you go if that's cool uh one sentiment that did come out was UFC is trying to build Patty off of Tony's name do you feel like that is what this fight is do you feel like they're trying to build him off of you no I believe that I believe in good matchmaking um this is a good fight um for both of us I believe that opportunities exist when we create them I've always said that um you know Sean Shelby Hunter and uh [ __ ] Dana I forget the other guy's name mcmanor I always do MC yes [ __ ] I always forget my bad they know what they're doing dude I mean they've been doing this for so long for so long and I know that I'm a fan favorite I know I'm the main event for this card I don't even [ __ ] know who else is fighting I really don't I'm pulling in all the fans I'm GNA be pulling in a lot of ticket sales for this thing and that's the coolest [ __ ] when you got like 18 to 20,000 fans screaming your [ __ ] name and listening to your song You Hear the [ __ ] you just hear the beat and everybody's bumping their heads and they're just amped up that's the kind of [ __ ] that you want to have that's the kind of Fighters that you want to be able to present and I know Patty's got the same kind of thing over there but man I I think it's a good fight I'm ready to go out there and I'm ready to win I'm ready to go for that finish I haven't had a finish in a very long time uh I'm due that's for sure one thing that I think is very exciting and promising about the Tony that I'm speaking to right now if you're a Tony Ferguson fan and I and I wonder for you as well is and and let me know if you disagree with me the last couple of fight weeks especially when you got to usually it was Vegas but other places as well last One S like it felt to me like you weren't just fighting your opponent you were perhaps fighting the promotion you were fighting the history you were fighting some of the bad luck it feels like you have let all that go and that you're in a very positive place and you're just focused on yourself and the opponent the task at hand is that a fair assessment of where you're at right now and perhaps maybe some of the stuff that was going on in the past I had to really open up myself to be able to accept what I could what I can and to close myself and create boundaries around things and people that were not good for me um a lot of negative energy just trying to keep that around and try to make it positive energy took a lot of energy um like I said letting go of a lot of things kind of like relationships and holding on to that [ __ ] takes so much work and interviews takes so much work and energy and I used to just [ __ ] hate it after a while because I've taken a lot of heat I've gotten a lot of good stuff I've it's just always been like this always been like this from my title to losing it to like all this [ __ ] and just like but you know I texted Dana one day and I was like you know and after we had a conversation I told him I was like you know you don't know me [ __ ] and I don't know you [ __ ] and it really took a second for both of us to kind of think about that that we finally started having respect for each other and I really had to open myself up to really look to see if I still wanted to do this be real like I really I do want to do this I still want to compete like I'm not ready for boxing like I'm not I have to kind of let that go like you're not boxing yet stop training boxing all the time you know like if there's more than just throwing hands you have to prepare MMA it's MMA and I used to do that like I used to pick apart my Fighters like it was chess I used to go in there and do all that stuff so I had to think about like how you were talking about like you know the promotions and the interviews and stuff like when's the last time I did an interview with you on with the video yo I I don't I think this is the first time very first time and how many interviews have I done so I really had to open myself up to a lot of things and uh these are the steps I'm taking man I'm I'm a [ __ ] different person thank God and I really want to win I really want to win I'm not wishing I'm making it happen I really want to win do you feel like this is a must-win for you I don't want to say a must-win I'm going to win a must is something that you feel like you're pressured in order to do I think there's a lot of pressure on a lot of people when it comes down to like with a lot of people like putting that pressure on people like I feel it like I'm nervous I'm gonna be real like it's it's a good feeling to have not being overconfident not not doing that and then having that nervous energy makes you want to get back in that room and train harder and uh like I said I feel I feel [ __ ] phenomenal I feel really good man especially being around team again my little man's team my team having my my close circle like my close circle is good it's very good you know I talked to my godfather you know he's gonna be making the you know the trip to to the fight and I don't think he's ever been to one of my fights so like there's a lot of good support that I'm bringing back which is it's phenomenal dude like I feel I feel really good Ariel like I feel really good like I feel like I'm not pressured to do [ __ ] like I really want to go in there and I want to do this for myself like I want to do this for myself my kids you know my wife I want to do this for not just myself I want to do it for my close Circle so that way they they see all the stuff they see the pain they see that and they worry about they don't they don't want to see me in the hospital you guys don't want to see me in the [ __ ] Hospital you guys don't want to see me get hurt I don't understand why you guys want to see everybody else get hurt but that's kind of cool I mean that's better not me than them you know but this is that kind of a sport and you know pandemic kind of hit you had to kind of like be brothers with everybody because it was like that time you know that era where we're at you know W say Pally but you know it just took a second for me six losses for me to be able to snap the [ __ ] out of it and really get back to what I need to do just kicking ass well this has been fantastic I I really appreciate this and I'm happy you brought up the video because when they told me here on our chat he's got his video on I was like whoa this is a different Tony because it's always been Audio Only and uh this has been huge I I I I joked with your um your your your your agent Lloyd Pearson who I'm a big fan of as well that uh you could bat clean up for us on a very busy day uh on this program and this has been the best way to end this busy day Tony really I think I speak for everyone when I say it's great to see you in this spot it's great to see and feel how happy you are and positive you are and excited and energized for December 16th and I know you have a legion of people who are backing you and I know that you feel that as well so thank you for doing this good luck in training and good luck on December 16th anything you want to say in closing before we go anything to the people to the public I know you don't do a lot of these so anything uh you want to say to the people hey like I always say you can follow me on my way to Victory on that little tweet thingy and well it's not tweet thing it's that X thingy and that IG thing Tony Ferguson XT and um we'll see you guys December 16 so get your tickets it's going to go fast thanks Tony all the best to you appreciate you doing this there is CSO Tony Ferguson how about that wow thanks for watching we appreciate it very much hey if you like this video give us the old thumbs up subscribe as well you can get many more of these videos on the channel so please do that we would love you forever if you did so

Channel: MMAFightingonSBN

Views: 263,576

Keywords: mma fighting, mixed martial arts, martial arts, ultimate fighting championship, combat sports, combat tv, ufc, mma, mma knockouts, ufc news, mma fight, mma news, fighter, boxing, tony ferguson, dana white, paddy pimblett, khabib nurmagomedov, ufc 296, las vegas, ariel helwani, the mma hour with ariel helwani, bobby green

Id: cdYRPxhzVZ0

Length: 38min 47sec (2327 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 02 2023