Tony Ferguson's decline is a good example of why fundamentals matter

[Hellowhosthat]

He'd have been less successful in his prime if he concentrated on fundamentals, it was his wild pace and pressure that made him great.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Watch his fight against Julian Erosa, straight robbery. He's low tier.

The Erosa fight was 7 years ago and he was a 21 year old kid.

 

[NoSmilez]

How old is Volk? MM?

Volk just turned 35. MM is 37 now. He lost his UFC belt 5 years ago. He also slowed down a lot. He is already teasing retirement earlier this year.

 

[HHJ]

Exactly. There are guys who are like bulldozers, just plow through the competition and you expect them to win by default. And there are others, like Tony, who looked beatable but still did it in spite of adversity. Reminded me of Fedor for a while, even though not really comparable.

Yeah...fedor may have had some scrapes here and there but he still had an unbeatable aura and could end you at any time. Tony was more like Nog in that he could turn a fight like he had w Kevin Lee around.

 

[maximus__]

Tony's "decline" has nothing to do with fundamentals; it's about age. At this age and mileage (the guy's been fighting professionally for 15 years), no amount of fundamentals would keep him "at an elite level."

Tony was 36 when this losing streak started. The only current top 10 LW who's 36 or older is Chandler, and his best win in the UFC was over #6 ranked Hooker (when Chandler was 34).

If anything, Tony fought at an elite level longer than almost every other LW.

Most of his losses have come from him flinching away from getting hit and making fundamental mistakes in his striking when he used to just go forward throwing in those moments. Age definitely was a factor, but Gaethje was able to absorb what others couldn't and it was a steady decline from there.

In the Paddy fight he was flailing around on the bottom with his arms from mounted position to escape. The guy clearly hasn't been training MMA for ages and has been doing weird cardio stuff instead by his own admissions.

 

[GeraltOfRivia]

Everybody ignored that he nearly got beat the exact same ways he's since lost all throughout his win streak. He didn't dominate 12 guys in a row. He nearly lost half them and was scraping by fights with heart, cardio, toughness, cheating, bad calls, and complete luck. Not superior skill.

Obviously he's worse now and it's exasberating his issues but anybody pretending his streak wasn't balanced on a knife's edge all along is lying.

Well said

 

[TheGreatA]

Guys who make a career out of being a tough SOB, rarely last long.

On top of that, I think even Eddie Bravo indicated that Tony started to totally neglect the grappling in favour of striking.

 

[Sticko]

Grapplers/wrestlers are the only ones who can compete at a high level in their late 30s. They lose athleticism but can still wrestle. No fighter has the wear and tear on their body like tony has nor trained like him either. In the lower weight classes like lightweight older slower guys have no chance without speed and athleticism. You can be 40 and have success at LHW and HW but not in the lighter weight classes.

Wonderboy doesn't have the TDD to beat the Shavkats, Belals and Durinhos anymore but he also has never really offered anything on the ground. Still strikes at a high level though.

I feel like there are plenty of wrestlers i who kind of abandon the wrestling and fall in love with their hands as they get older. I mean, Usman isn't really a takedown machine anymore now is he? He has bad knees.

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

Wonderboy doesn't have the TDD to beat the Shavkats, Belals and Durinhos anymore but he also has never really offered anything on the ground. Still strikes at a high level though.

I feel like there are plenty of wrestlers i who kind of abandon the wrestling and fall in love with their hands as they get older. I mean, Usman isn't really a takedown machine anymore now is he? He has bad knees.

I’m thinking about guys like Glover and DC. Grapplers have longer longevity in the sport, especially at heavier weight classes

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

These days he's only TUF Alumni,


Imagine he didnt trip on that cord and beats Habibi, lmaooooo

 

[Vil7]

His grappling skills seems to haven gotten a lot worse.

 

[Elvis.]

He was constantly taking too much abuse even when he was winning, but go back and watch that fight with Justin again , that beating was so savage that this fight alone without all of the previous damage could ruin a career. His corner or the ref or the doctor really should have saved him way sooner

 

[orca]

tonys elbows> khabib on top gnp-ing him
lol cant believe people back then
believe this

 

[dwightschrute111]

I'd bet against him against ANYONE currently in the division, truly

He's giving Diego Sanchez last 4 fight vibes, cant believe anyone gave him a chance vs Paddy (even if you dont rate Paddy highly)

 

[Aluminati]

Tony is obviously over encumbered. He needs to drop some items, sell some gear he's not using anymore, and then dump way more points into Vitality and Agility. That will allow Tony to have the proper build to continue to Dark Souls roll and beat all bosses of the LW division. Humanity Restored.

He has been doing the over encumbered roll in a lot of his fights.

 

[markg171]

His grappling skills seems to haven gotten a lot worse.

Has it really though? He got wrestlefucked by Castillo and Lee long before Charles, Beneil, and Paddy did. Pettis and Chandler also had no problem on the ground with him before Nate and Bobby subbed him.

Like yeah it's obviously worse. But it was never great in the first place. His grappling's always been overrated, based off high risk moves that somehow occasionally worked. Gleison's the best grappler he's beat and Gleison took the fight on 3 weeks notice. The vast majority of high level grapplers he's fought have handled his grappling just fine (unless they have staph like Lee).

 

[markg171]

He'd have been less successful in his prime if he concentrated on fundamentals, it was his wild pace and pressure that made him great.

Exactly which fighter that he beat during his streak do you think he'd have been WORSE off had he been more of stickler for fundamentally sounder technique?

The reason he kept nearly losing is precisely because his wildness kept costing him.

 

[HereticBD]

Didn't the dude suffer a terrible knee injury, or some shit?

 

[StoneWT]

I "bet" against Tony simply because he has been on the BJ Penn downhill slide at least for the last couple of fights. No one recovers from that and the only "win" would be a freak accident for the opponent, retarded ref, or blind Cecil Peep-holes judge.

Tony has Ronda-itis. He got by on unpredictable craziness for a long time the same way Ronda got by on the judo her mom beat into her 24/7 over years. Now that the craziness isn't working, he doesn't want to go to a real gym to learn new skills as he would look like crap initially the same way that Ronda doesn't want to go to a real gym because she is scared of looking dumb when it takes her forever to learn how to integrate significant new skills into a fight. Best thing for Tony is to try and get a YouTube or celebrity fight for a fat 6 or 7-figures to help live comfortably for the rest of his life. He can't coach as the losing streak makes him look bad to students and he no longer scares opponents so getting a real fight in a lower league isn't feasible. Tony talking crap now looks like the special ed kid in elementary school trying to call a student in a gifted class dumb.

 

[Wreckless]

Everybody ignored that he nearly got beat the exact same ways he's since lost all throughout his win streak. He didn't dominate 12 guys in a row. He nearly lost half them and was scraping by fights with heart, cardio, toughness, cheating, bad calls, and complete luck. Not superior skill.

Obviously he's worse now and it's exasberating his issues but anybody pretending his streak wasn't balanced on a knife's edge all along is lying.

You can't descredit a 12 fight winning streak by calling half of them luck and bad calls.

Heart, cardio and toughness are all important attributes in a fighter.

No matter how you look at it his style was effective and got the job done. He took more risks than 90% of fighters and that's why he often got himself in these bad positions. Not because he's a bad fighter.

Hell I reckon he could've won those fights even more convincingly had he not tried stupid shit.