Tony Ferguson (photo via UFC / YouTube)

By Kelsey Mowatt

The consensus seems to be that Tony Ferguson will incur a seventh straight defeat at UFC 296, when he battles rising lightweight, Paddy Pimblett. But, Daniel Cormier is cautioning observers to not write “El Cucuy” off.

Recently, it was announced that the former interim lightweight champ would fight Pimblett at the December 16th event, which is taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Due to Ferguson’s recent struggles in the cage, and because he’s now 39 year’s old, the fighter is a considerable underdog heading into the fight.

But, while talking about the contest on his YouTube channel, Cormier noted that Ferguson could end up shocking the MMA world (quotes via MMA Junkie.com).

“Is it as simple as he just needs one?” Cormier said. “Because imagine what happens for Tony Ferguson if he beats Paddy Pimblett. He said before the last fight – I sat in the fighter meeting with him and Tony Ferguson said, ‘It’s going to be a fight right now. Five more fights, I’m on the title.’ So, it’s not like he has lost that desire to fight. He has not lost the thought that he can be a world champion.

“I’m going to tell you this right now, and this is the saying as old as time, fellas: Every great champion has one more night in him. We saw it with George Foreman w en he beat Michael Moorer. He did not belong in the ring with Michael Moorer. We have seen so many great fighters have one great night, where if you close your eyes and you squint enough, they remind you of that person that was on that run.”

It wasn’t that long ago that Ferguson (25-9) was widely considered to be one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet, due to a 12-fight winning streak he put together. That streak came to an end in May, 2020, when he was stopped by Justin Gaethje.

“El Cucuy” has lost five more bouts since then. Most recently, Ferguson was choked out by Bobby Green in July.

The 28-year-old Pimblett (20-3) has won six straight bouts and has gone 4-0 in the UFC to date. In his last fight, which took place in December, 2022, he was awarded a tightly contested decision over Jared Gordon.