Tony Ferguson was not going to let the cancellation of UFC 249 prevent him from preparing like he normally would during a fight week.
Ferguson told ESPN that he dropped weight like usual this week ahead of his previously scheduled fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov on Saturday. Ferguson said he started the week at 179 and got all the way down to 155 pounds for his canceled lightweight fight.
“It wasn’t just for me, it was for my team, man, and my sponsors and obviously for my family,” Ferguson said. “And just the commitment to myself to follow through with the weight cut. … To me that says a lot more for my stock. Saying that you know what, ‘I’m gonna make weight, I’m not gonna miss weight.’ I have what it takes mentally to go through this fight camp. It’s gonna be awesome, dude. It was such a great experience.”
That’s some serious commitment right there, though Ferguson did have to train like a fight was going to happen all the way up to April 9 when it was finally canceled. You might as well go the whole way, right?
Ferguson was not going to fight Nurmagomedov even if the fight would have happened. Nurmagomedov was unable to travel from Dagestan because of the coronavirus pandemic, so Justin Gaethje was named as his replacement to fight Ferguson. Three days later, the fight was canceled, though Ferguson decided to drop nearly 15 percent of his bodyweight anyway.
Could Ferguson fight May 9?
Ferguson and Gaethje may not have to wait long for their fight to happen and Ferguson won’t have to make such a large cut again unless he pigs out over the next couple weeks. UFC would like to have an event on May 9 with their fight as the main event, though a location hasn’t been finalized.
“He is very good at knowing that there is a possibility that he will have to weigh in on May 8 and fight on May 9, so he’s not going to have that fat-kid experience that a lot of fighters have after the fight,” Ferguson’s nutrition coach Paulina Indara told ESPN. “Because they’re like, ‘Oh, I fought. Clearly, I’m not going to fight for several months and I’m gonna eat everything under the sun.’ That’s not the case here. He knows he has to be disciplined. Knowing that will keep him on track. So, we’re not worried about it, he’s not worried about it, his coaches aren’t worried about it.”
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
More from Yahoo Sports:
