MMAnytt.se har träffat Tony Ferguson inför hans kommande match mot Edson Barboza vid finalen av The Ultimate Fighter 22 på fredag. Ferguson pratar om mötet med Barboza, sin egen fightingstil samt förklarar varför han just nu har ett positivt momentum.
MMAnytt.se intervjuade Tony Ferguson inför hans kommande match mot Edson Barboza vid finalen av The Ultimate Fighter 22 på fredag. Ferguson pratade om sin match mot Barboza och hur bytet av motståndare påverkade hans förberedelser inför matchen. Ferguson pratar också om sin egen fightingstil och om varför han själv är så svår att förbereda sig inför, samt vad det är som ligger bakom hans just nu sex matcher långa winstreak.
MMAnytt.se: We are here with Tony Ferguson in Las Vegas, for this monster fight week and your fight with Edson Barboza. However, it wasn’t originally a fight with Barboza, you had a change in opponent, and a pretty drastic one. Obviously, Barboza is a very different fighter compared to Khabib Nurmagomedov who you were supposed to fight, how much did that affect your training camp?
Ferguson: I was preparing for a gamy Russian, you know a big bear wrestler, now I am fighting a Jaguar from Brazil, but I am a Mexican, I am a warrior, I am more than prepared for any of these guys that they put in front on me. I have Latin blood, I am Mexican, I am strong, these guys who come in here they present the same thing, but I just don’t see them beating me. I work my ass off and the opponent change was really good. I am glad it happened. I don’t want a guy who breaks under pressure, I want a guy who is going to be tough, tricky and gamy. I want someone who gives me a fight, like Gleison Tibau did.
This fight against Josh Thompson I just had, I like to say that was practice because he pissed me off. He got in my face in the weigh ins and I had to prove a little point: I had him go 15 minutes with me, and then he had one minute in between the rounds to think about what the hell he did – that’s what “El Cucuy” is about, if you don’t piss me off then it’s cool: we have a cool little game in there and I let you off with a quick finish, but if you piss me off you will have to go 15 minutes with me.
MMAnytt.se: Now you are going to meet a fighter who has a lot of good stand up skills obviously, a fighter who is known for his leg kicks. Actually, he is one of the few fighters who have finished several fight with leg kicks alone, how are you going to deal with that?
Ferguson: Well I guess you have got to learn to check sometimes. I like to go toe-to-toe. I break Jaws, that’s what I do. If he wants to throw a leg kick he is going to get a hand in his face. He has to remember that my game is not just hands: I do kicks, I do punches, I do flips and shit. I am a ninja guy. He will have to be prepared. I don’t think they had anybody in his camp as tricky to prepare against as I am, which is something I take great pride in – nobody is doing what I am doing.
MMAnytt.se: Abel Trujillo, who was previously considered a very promising prospect, a very dangerous guy, but you just totally dismantled him. What is it about your style that gives your opponents such big problems?
Ferguson: I am relentless man. I am like a nightmare who you can’t escape. Its like those ones when you keep going through doors and thinks to yourself: ‘Oh shit where is he? Oh damn he is right there! He is doing jiu-jitsu, oh man he is doing stand up! Oh no he is doing muay thai, what is he doing? Oh he is going crazy!’. That is what I want – I want my opponents to be so loced out inside the octagon that they have no choice but to quit. That’s what I do and that’s what I do best.
MMAnytt.se: You have always done well in the UFC but it seems like you are on a different roll now. Is there anything that has changed or happened in your life, that got you to the next level in fighting?
Ferguson: I have started to take it serious. When I started in the ultimate fighter I didn’t even watch the show, I just knew that I had to support the family, the job I had back then was shit, and I went to school which was something I wanted to do but it wasn’t me, so I had to make a choice to take my career seriously. And when I made that choice its beautiful man, my whole family was on board and they were like ‘Are you going to compete again? Ah, Awsome!’ So I think what happened was that as soon as I started to care about what everybody else was thinking, my confidence level went down. Now I don’t give a shit about what they are thinking, cause people are going to watch me fight no matter what.
Fergusson avslutar intervjun med att beskriva hans känslor inför MMA och vad som krävs för att bli en professionell fighter:
”I love this game. If you don’t have love or passion for this sport, get out – you don’t have any room in this sport, we don’t want you here”.
