UFC 279’s headliner was every bit as chaotic as the circumstances that brought it about. Tony Ferguson eventually succumbed to a Nate Diaz submission, and post-fight discussed where he felt he went wrong in allowing that to happen.
“I should have kept it standing. Period. Got to discuss some things with my cornermen. Nothing bad. Nobody’s getting fired, nobody’s doing f****** bad. It’s just some adjustments, it’s a new game for me, mixing it up, putting the MMA together. My [originally scheduled opponent], Li [Jingliang], was a right-hander.
Tony Ferguson Admits To Fatal Mistake Against Diaz: “I should have kept it standing”
If I would have went for the takedown [against Li] it would have been more difficult for him to do that kind of stuff, but Nate, he prepared for Khamzat [Chimaev]. You saw Khamzat when he took down Kevin Holland. He went, took him out on the right side, it was a right-handed opponent, it was on his lead jab. He went straight, put him down.
I guarantee you Nate was looking for that guillotine the whole entire camp. They had a full camp to be able to do stuff. It is what you practice. We did a lot of wrestling practice and we did a lot of good stuff. It was just unfortunate, s*** happens. I wish it would have made it to the fifth round. I know what to do better next time. It f****** sucks.”
Tony Ferguson’s own submission game is far from lacking, but aggressive, classic jiu-jitsu is Nate Diaz’s bread and butter. The fight was competitive throughout, with Tony enjoying success during the standing phase of the bout, but ultimately, Diaz had the advantage on the ground. For “El Cucuy”, however, their trash talk and banter in the Octagon was just part of the fun.
“We didn’t say nothing. I kicked him in the shin, he was like, ‘Owwww.’ You know what I mean? It was just a lot of having fun. I hope you guys had a lot of fun. I haven’t had a fight like that ever. It was the coolest experience I probably could have had being in front of everybody, being the most calm, super chill, bringing it out there. There were a lot of quick finishes before so it wasn’t like we got a s***** warm-up. Although when I go in the back and I put my hoodie on it was like an extra small, so it was kind of weird, but like I said none of this stuff matters.
It’s what you do outside there. It’s seeing the crowd, seeing everybody that was right there, it was dope. It felt like it was back where I needed to be. I haven’t felt like that for a f****** long time. Mentally strong, physically strong, emotionally strong. I feel good. I’m ready for the next one.”
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