"I finally reached out" - Tony Ferguson reveals he is back with 'classic' training team ahead of Paddy Pimblett fight
Former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson is set to face Paddy Pimblett in his next outing. The bout will take place at UFC 296 on December 16th, with the main event being the long-awaited bout between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington for the 170lbs. strap.
Speaking to Brett Okamoto of ESPN, Ferguson revealed that he had reached out to his old, 'classic' team in order to prepare for Pimblett and bounce back from a 6 fight losing-streak.
'El Cucuy' said:
"We got Paddy coming up December 16th, we're training with a new team, my old team, classic fight team with Tyler Wombles and his guys. I haven't worked with them...we had a mutual friend who kinda burned everything up, we rekindled a lot of stuff over the years. I finally reached out to him. I reached out to him, I said, hey, basically, let's work and I showed up and it's like we never missed a beat."
Check out the Tony Ferguson interview here (3:44 for his comments on training with his old team):
He went on to add that this collaboration offered him a complete 'team' to work with him. He further added that there was some difficulty for him during and after the pandemic as he tried to put together his own team.
Fans will hope that this bodes well for Ferguson, as a loss to Paddy Pimblett may see the curtain coming down on Tony Ferguson's UFC career.
Tony Ferguson outlines reasons for his fall from grace
Much has been made of Tony Ferguson's 6-fight skid. Ferguson, who reached the highest highs of the MMA mountain, has looked lackluster, to say the least, in his last few outings.
Recently, he took to X/Twitter to outline a few reasons as to why he believes he has struggled recently.
In a pair of tweets, Ferguson, in typical 'El Cucuy' fashion, wrote:
"1.) Haven’t Sparred Good Since Barboza or Thompson 2.) Only Time I Find Myself In A Cage Is When I Fight 3.) Since Pandemic None of This Shit Has Been Fun 4.) I Used To Smile A Lot Moar When I Was Competing 5.) Been So Busy Taking Care Of Others Instead Of Myself Continuted 6) Created Boundaries Between Those Who Are Bad For Me 8.) Structured Myself So I Don’t Make The Same Mistakes 9.) No I’m Not Retiring & F**k Those Who Think I Should 10.) I Have Work To Do & I’m One Pissed Off MF -Champ -CSO-"
Check out the tweets here: