Tony Ferguson has extended his career by switching his focus to boxing.
On December 20, Ferguson will face Warren Spencer in the first defense of his undisputed Misfits Boxing middleweight title.
A lot of fans were relieved to see him pick up a win on his debut in the promotion after how his run in the UFC ended.
While many still believe that Ferguson should quit while he’s ahead and ride off into the sunset on the back of a victory, he has no plans to slow down.
He even chose to continue fighting after being told to consider retirement by one of the few people whose opinions he holds in high regard.
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Tony Ferguson was urged to find a ‘second passion’ by Brock Lesnar
Tony Ferguson may still have some UFC matchups in mind that he’d like to tick off before he calls time on his career but boxing is now his focus.
‘El Cucuy’ may not have looked back to his very best in his win over Salt Papi in August but it was still clear that this was a better move for him than trying to compete at the highest level of MMA.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, he revealed that he had asked Brock Lesnar for advice during the losing streak that ended his UFC run.
Ferguson and Lesnar didn’t always see eye-to-eye but with the former UFC heavyweight champion being his coach on season 13 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, he still respects him highly.
The 41-year-old admitted that his former coach had told him to start thinking about retiring.
When Ferguson responded by questioning how fighters retire, Lesnar advised him to find his “second passion” and put everything into it just like he has with his first passion.
This seemingly led the former UFC interim lightweight champion to divert his attention away from MMA and into boxing.
“Sports is my passion,” Ferguson said when reflecting on this conversation. “I love sports, I love competing, I love competing at a high level… This is what it is. I love this sport, never been allowed to play it. Here I am. 2026 is around the corner so I wanted to fight in 2025. We’re gonna finish this year f—— strong man and dammit, I’m excited.”
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Tony Ferguson ‘understood’ why Brock Lesnar told him to consider retirement
Tony Ferguson, both in his interview with MMA Fighting and in recent times, has got fired up when talking about people counting him out or telling him to retire.
Therefore, it won’t have been easy for him to hear someone that he respects so much like Brock Lesnar say something similar to him.
That doesn’t mean that he didn’t take Lesnar’s comments on board, with him understanding where his former coach was coming from.
“I understand why he would say that,” Ferguson said. “When you have your athletes, the last thing you want to do is see them get hurt. That’s from any sport. That’s just how it goes. Because they’re underneath your care, you’re supposed to care like that. At least you have that relationship with your athlete.”
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