Tony Ferguson releases statement after loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC 256: “No excuses”

Former UFC interim lightweight champ Tony Ferguson recently took to Instagram and issued a statement after his defeat to Charles Oliveira at the co-main event of UFC 256. Despite entering the contest as the betting favourite, Tony Ferguson suffered a one-sided defeat as Charles Oliveira dominated the bout from start to finish. Do Bronx outclassed Ferguson in every department, winning the bout by unanimous decision (30–26, 30–26, 30–26).

This was Oliveira’s eighth win in a row, while for El Cucuy, it was his second straight loss of the year. Before losing to the Brazilian, Tony Ferguson was bested by Justin Gaethje at UFC 249. However, unlike UFC 256, Tony Ferguson got a moment to shine against Justin Gaethje, before the referee intervened and gave The Highlight a TKO win.

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Tony Ferguson statement: El Cucuy opens up on his recent defeat

A few days after the conclusion of UFC 256, Tony Ferguson took to Instagram and opened up about his loss, claiming that he has “no excuses”. He wrote that he “fell flat” and “welcomed the attack instead of defend [sic]”. Ferguson further added, “The warm-up time in the back for UFC hasn’t been the same since pre-covid. Still, no excuses, times change and so do people. The time from the hotel to the UFC Apex is much more condensed and the aggressive level we needed was not reached”.

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Tony Ferguson also revealed that after the fight he was checked by the doctors and ran straight to his hotel room afterwards. He claimed he was fresh from the fight, so he started hitting pads to find out what went wrong during the contest. “Solution: Pre-fight time management,” wrote El Cucuy, while admitting that he was not very aggressive during the bout.

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Despite losing the bout to the No. 7 ranked Oliveira, Ferguson is still ranked in the top 10 of the lightweight rankings. And although Dana White made it clear that Ferguson will not be released anytime soon, it can be said that the former interim champion is at a crossroads in his MMA career. Dana White also revealed at the post-fight conference that he would like Ferguson to take some time off to recover, before figuring out what to do next.

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Image Source: Tony Ferguson/ Instagram