Tony is arrogant, and that's the reason for his downfall

Bend NvR Break said:
I think another part of it is that people aren't giving Oliveira much respect. To them he's still the same guy that got tapped by Pettis (in a fight he was dominating before a slip up) and got smashed by Felder's elbows.
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I had been underestimating him as well. He’s still relatively new...when he beat Kevin Lee I was really impressed because Lee was actually doing very well before that loss and he looked really solid. I thought it may have been the best Lee we had seen in a long time.

He was coming off a huge win over Gregor who many were saying was gonna be “the guy” to make a run at khabib. Then he comes in overweight to fight Oliviera and still got whooped.

I think do Bronx clearly is not getting the respect he deserves, like you said
 
Tony is just too good for UFC judges. It was close fgiht
 
What people are criticizing about his style is actually the reason for his success. He tried to fight a more technical fight vs Gaethje and Olivera, that is actually his downfall. Fighters will be technically better at him if he tries to fight a more technical style of fight, because that's how they have been training and fighting. Tony does well when he makes them fight his style at his pace and volume. Most fighters can't keep up with that work rate and constant pressure and that's how he usually wins.

He's trying to fight more technically now and it's obvious he's not that comfortable in that style. He's slower and it's obvious he is thinking more instead of flowing and reacting. He is also trying to switch into a counter striker but he doesn't have the timing and he isn't able to read strikes like other counter strikers. You can't just suddenly become a counter striker. Takes a lot of time developing the timing, distance, footwork, and being able to properly read strikes to counter. Same thing happened to Costa when he tried to be a counter fighter vs Adesanya. They got caught a lot stationary just looking at the strikes because they don't have the timing developed yet and don't know how to properly read strikes to figure out which strike to slip/block/counter.
 
The only fight tony is winning these days is against his mcdojo wing chun dummies.

tony kinda reminds me of ronda. Both are a case of mcdojo training n yet they somehow lucked out a win streak
 
The Legendary Scarface said:
There is a fine line between being unorthodox and being out of control.
Tony is far, far at the end of that spectrum.
He's never actually taken the time to improve and it seems like nobody in his team can even point out any flaws and get him to switch some things up.

Let's call a spade a spade - Tony is arrogant. He does what he wants, how he wants and is fully emersed in his own ideology.

From a P's and Q's standpoint, he's been the same exact fighter since TUF. This entire time he's fought the same way and relied on toughness, cardio and volume to get him through his opponents.

Had he seriously wanted to improve, he could've taken the leap to reach out to some boxers, or go to Thailand for a change, etc.

Tony is stuck in his ways and it's a shame because he has the work ethic and mental fortitude to be a dominant champ.
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I agree - he's absorbed unnecessary damage (like in the first round of the Vannata fight) for years, and relied on crazy scrambles and cardio to get him through. He never finessed his defense, never seemed to consider a strategy that didn't involve throwing caution to the wind, and had a bad combination of being injury-prone + questionable training methods, all while fighting (Lando aside) top competition. His time has come and gone. It could have been better, and it could have lasted longer, but he'll never admit - just see his video post-fight saying that Oliveira's armbar was amateurish and that he (Tony) planned it all along.
 
Tony is arrogant, delusional and crazy. Always has been. At some points in his career, I think that also helped him be the winner he was. It also certainly hasn’t helped with the longevity of his career, but I think his downfall can also be contributed to the fact that the guy is now in his late 30’s in a young man’s division. No great LW has ever been great at Tony’s age and given his style and overall craziness, when he finally started to slip, it always seemed like the decline was going to be ugly. Still overall, the guy had a better career than 99% of fighters that ever got into professional MMA, even if he was never undisputed champ. I think he could have beaten most LW champs in UFC history up until Khabib. I just hope he doesn’t go the BJ Penn route now.
 
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Tony was good all rounder for mma 5 years ago. Now he just lost some speed, and his title/belt contention is thing of the past. Game is too fast for him now. This is the only logical explanation i could come up with.
 
What made him good is leading him to destroy his body and prevent him from getting better. Double edged sword. I also feel like he does the weird stuff just to play it up for the memes now
 
Red Dragoniop said:
yeah good idea. if tony went to Thailand he would be champ. STFU with this garbage
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I dunno about Thailand, but TS is spot on.

Tony surrounds himself with yes men that feed into his.... strangeness.

He's trained alone without actual sparring or training partners since tuf. He rolls around in a Gi at 10th planet once or twice a week.

Besides that, his 'team' supports him running around on uneven surfaces with logs on his back, kicking metal pipes, striking wooden objects, and doing all sorts of other work outs that are hard on the ligaments/joints.

He chooses 'trainers' to come in for short periods, but it's more him picking their brain than being a student.


Those weird videos aren't for show, that's all he does. He doesn't spar or get any sort of hard rounds in at all.
 
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Zebra Cheeks said:
I don’t think he’s too much of anything.

His mentality and attitude lead him to one of the longest win streaks in the history of the ufc in an extremely cut throat division. He will have a similar legacy to a guy like DC. He was always incredible but never #1, and he is allowed to be confident when he’s that successful.

I don’t understand why everyone is writing his career off as a failure because it didn’t have a storybook ending, as if anyone in MMA does have a storybook ending.
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Whoa. Mate, I can't agree with those highlighted parts.

Yes, that division is good and deep, but lets not pretend that Tony's streak was against the best competition. His best win is RDA in a fight that he won by a single round on all three scorecards.

But other than RDA, that win streak isn't that impressive at all, and it's made less impressive by the fact that he was getting stunned, almost finished, and had to claw his way back in order to win. If he had fought and beat prime Cowboy or Pettis, that would have been great, but he was fighting the washed up versions. Lando isn't good and was flogging him until he gassed. Lee isn't good but was taking him down at will and wilted because he was sick and was just lying in Tony's guard towards the end. Danny Castillo had a full round of control time + 2:30 in rounds 1 or 2, didn't get outlanded and somehow still lost. Ferguson was very lucky to get that one.

Once he finally started fighting more and more fighters at the top who closer to his prime, he got exposed, and badly at that. Gaethje isn't the best striker in the division, having gotten handled by Dustin and Eddie, and Tony was nowhere near Gaethje's level on the feet. Now, Olivera handled him with complete ease on the mat.

How can you possibly compare Tony to DC like that? Tony has had a fun career, but that's really it. He never reached the top, unlike DC. DC wasn't squeaking by journeyman and lesser comp either, he was absolutely destroying them.

Tony getting dropped and almost finished by past it Pettis and almost beat by Lando until he gassed is like if DC struggled against Henderson and Cummings, but he didn't. He ran through both of those guys. Picked Henderson up over his head and slammed him at one point, I believe.

And DC actually was #1. Tony never was. DC has a claim to being LHW GOAT even because he only ever lost at LHW to a guy who was proven to be a cheater.
 
One year ago, Tony was the guy many thought would beat Khabib. Two fights later he is considered by many to be over rated and finished as a contender. Tough year for Tony!
 
Zebra Cheeks said:
Of course it is, but you’re saying it like it’s a fact. You’re not supporting your points adequately. If you’re going to make such an extreme statement you should support it with logic and reasoning, not just whip out your opinion and flop it on the table and ask everyone to respect it.

It’s just a difference in fight styles mate. When have we ever held “wars” against fighters? If that’s how he wins, that’s how he wins. There’s certainly less impressive ways to win an mma fight than getting into a war and coming out on top.
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Supporting my points adequately?
What do I have to prove? Its common knowledge for any hardcore fan that Tony takes a lot of damage in his fights and that's always been the case.
You just used the word "wars", further proving my point. Look at the numbers. Strikes absorbed. It's been a decade bro and he's added nothing new to his standup. No head movement, no pull counter, no real boxing adjustments.

Now, he fights Charles, gets completely dominated, mounted and looks like a fish out of water. Then he proceeds to say "He rushed the arm bar, I broke him mentally". That's the epitome of arrogance.

I love Tony as much as the next guy, but for all the praise I've given him when winning, will turn into flak when losing. That's the nature of being a pro athlete and being a fan.
 
Zebra Cheeks said:
I don’t think he’s too much of anything.

His mentality and attitude lead him to one of the longest win streaks in the history of the ufc in an extremely cut throat division. He will have a similar legacy to a guy like DC. He was always incredible but never #1, and he is allowed to be confident when he’s that successful.

I don’t understand why everyone is writing his career off as a failure because it didn’t have a storybook ending, as if anyone in MMA does have a storybook ending.
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Agreed, Ferguson has had a better career than most LWs ever will and is somewhere in the top 10 all time at LW which is a big deal in a division that's always been one of the most stacked divisions in MMA.
 
Bend NvR Break said:
And he didn't tear his leg up. I give that credit to the sunglasses and whoever set up the the camera cable.
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People have laughed at Betche's hop for years, but she cleared the damn wire.

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