There is reason in your post, the kind that escapes the dumbass haters. As a Paddy fan, I believe it is time for him to step up to another level, but he has been doing that ever since he entered thew UFC. Stepping down to a lesser fight would be a terrible move on Dana's part, as well as Paddy's. It's better he fights a great fighter and loses than take a step down in comp and win. I believe he knows this. Dana has to pay though because he does draw. His pay may exceed the pay of better fighters, but that's all part of the business. He's great at THAT part, arguably better than he is at fighting (which he's good at), but everybody can get better at fighting through dedication and hard work. That's the part he can improve on, obviously. He has plenty of talent, but the food show has to end, and he might want to fight a better striking coach and/or training partners. His chaotic stand-up style won't work against highly disciplined fighters.
Yeah. I am not a Paddy hater or a Paddy fan. Sure, some of the stuff he says mildly annoys me, but other times he seems like an okay sort. I am largely indifferent to him and treat him as I would any other prospect. There are a lot of moving pieces involved here that I didn't really cover, like what is Paddy's contract status right now? He's stated that he wants to be on the "O'Malley plan", i.e. fighting the worst guys for the least amount of money until the UFC makes it worth his while to take a step up in competition. I assume the UFC signed him to a 4-fight deal, so with the W over Gordon I assume they'll resign him and potentially to a more lucrative contract. Will they have him Co-Main or even headline in London in order to capitalize on their new star? And if so, do they hedge their bets by having fight another unranked guy who they judge to be a winnable fight for him in order to get the full value of the showcase?
I agree with your premise entirely that he can't dodge upper-level competition forever. Eventually he's got to take that next step. Even O'Malley eventually got the Munhoz and Yan bouts. But I also acknowledge that there are some business considerations that the promotion and his management might consider to take precedence in this case... but we'll see. As far as his long-term prospects, I don't know. Based solely on what he's shown us thus far, I've said that he seems like he has the potential to be a Top 20 guy. I would need to see him improve before I believed he could really make a run in the rankings proper. I wasn't sure what to make of him when he first came to the UFC; I actually faded him against Luigi and he proved me wrong. He continuously impressed me with small aspects and improvements to his game between fights to the point that I picked him to beat Gordon which is a reversal of my initial assessment when they were originally talking about the two of them fighting one another around the time Paddy made his debut. I didn't expect him to struggle with Jared to that extent, though. He's still young enough to improve further, though, admittedly.
I can't say I'm not interested in seeing where he goes regardless.
Yeah Tony has broken my heart since the Gaethje fight.
Never seen him beaten like that tbh, and I have been a fan of his, his entire career.
I feel like that was the turning point for him though.
You can see why these guys don't retire though, as they always think they can "fix" what is wrong.
Thanks for the convo, you don't get good conversations here all the time.
I was never a massive Tony fan, but I always enjoyed his entertaining style of fighting watching the man scrap. Definitely had respect for what he accomplished inside the division. I felt like everything post-Kevin Lee and the knee injury was marked by a slow, steady albeit noticeable regression from him. Then along came Gaethje and beat whatever was left out of his prime out of him.
In many ways, the Nate fight was even
more worrying. Because at least against Chandler, Dariush, Gaethje, and Oliveira he never gave up and was mentally in it the whole time -- it was just that his body was physically incapable of performing the tasks he was asking of it unlike several years ago and his skill didn't match up anymore. Against Nate, it was like he suffered a mental regression as well -- I never thought I'd see the day where Tony accepted being on the back foot for the entirety of the fight, shying away from being hit and tripping over his own feet in a defensive shell to escape the first sign of punishment before shooting a panic takedown into a submission.
It's a broken man in there who isn't doing himself any favors by continuing to take these fights. People have called me out for hating on him by saying these things -- but I only say it because I respect him. I respect him so deeply that I don't want to see him take even more damage fighting needlessly beyond his level of competition when his prospects for long-term quality of life after the sport already look grim. The last thing I want is to watch the next hot prospect -- whether it be Paddy or someone else -- kill Tony in the cage. It's sad for Ferguson, but it also doesn't tell us anything meaningful about the capabilities of that prospect. It's effectively a meaningless bout other than moving said prospect into the rankings. But I digress...
And likewise, thanks for the discussion man. I know we don't see eye-to-eye on everything (I'd be worried if we did!), but it's nice to have solid chats like these.