It didn’t work out again. Tony Ferguson he moved up to a higher weight category, found a team and radically changed his training, but that didn’t help either. Michael Chiesa caught him in a rear-naked choke in the first round and “El Cucuyo” had no choice but to tap out. The UFC has a new record, no one has ever had 8 defeats in a row there.

And the question now is what with My Ferguson will continue Commentator Daniel Cormier tried to push him to retire after the fight. But Tony got away with it by leaving only one glove in the center of the octagon. “I don’t want to quit. But I love the UFC and I don’t want to go anywhere else. So I won’t put both gloves in there, I’ll just put one in there. I’ll keep the other one, just to be sure.” he explained.

But it looked like on the press that he really didn’t want to quit. He admitted that he was very nervous before the match and even vomited several times, which was new for him. He then felt slow in the match and sees it as a mistake that he did not devote enough time to wrestling in preparation. At the same time, he already admitted that if the UFC releases him, he will simply go elsewhere, maybe even try another combat sport.

However, his UFC colleagues would prefer to see him end his career.

“We love you Tony, but please wrap it up” Henry Cejudo told him via social networks. “We love you, but it’s time,” Terrance McKinney added.

Charles Oliveira was more forgiving: “Decision is up to you. It was an honor to share the Octagon with you in 2020,” he wrote

“One of the best lightweights ever. I hope that future generations will remember the legend of El Cucuye.” Kelvin Gastelum also commented.

“I’m happy for Chiesa, but sad for Ferguson. It’s hard to see such a great career change in the way that he did.” Aljamain Sterling shared his feelings.

His former rival Khabib Nurmagomedov also had a nice message for Tony. “It’s not a surprise to me because he’s 40 years old. I just want to wish him the best, he is truly one of the best fighters to ever wrestle in the UFC. His life is just beginning as he is only 40 years old and has now retired from MMA. It will be a different life now, a much better one.”

So we’ll see what path El Cucuy takes. But it is very likely that he will lead outside the UFC. Currently, however, there are more than enough other options.

Another case of Tadeáš Růžička resonates in the domestic scene in recent days. Security cameras at one of Prague’s swimming pools captured how a group of three aggressors attacked a man who suffered facial fractures from the fight. The one who dealt the final blows was Růžička, who is on probation due to an incident in which he knocked out an unknown man on the street last year.

Now, most likely, he will not escape the prison sentence, and the sports world is starting to sneeze at him. Even his coaches couldn’t just pass over the incident. “After consultation with Miky Vančura (coach) and the entire internal department of Spejbl gym, we decided to suspend Tadeáš Mawar Růžička. He is no longer our fighter, he is not in our ranks, he will not train with us. Because of his behavior, which is incompatible with a decent person, let alone a top athlete. Tada made a mistake for the second time, the first time we stood up for him as a family, we were basically the last ones to fight for him and apologize for his behavior. We thought it would get better, that it would take over, but unfortunately nothing has changed, maybe it has gotten worse.” announced on social networks Ondřej “Spejbl” Hutník, legendary Thai boxer and one of the main men behind the elite posturing gym. “We apologize to everyone who our now ex-combatant has caused any harm. Thaddeus now he will have to accept responsibility for his actions and submit to repentance and punishment,” reads the addendum below the video.

Promoters are also starting to give up on Růžička. As the first Red Face organization to organize a boxing event in Ústí nad Labem on August 8 in cooperation with Tohle je. The rematch between Mawar and “Tyson” Skop, who recently defeated him, was supposed to lead. “Fighters are taught some discipline and some respect from the very beginning. Their hands are weapons they shouldn’t be allowed to use outside of the cage. Tadeáš Růžička has already had one problem, and when he committed another, we could not allow him to continue with us from a human point of view. Therefore, we are canceling his match with Josef Škop with immediate effect.

Of course, we are sorry for the fans who were looking forward to this match, but at the same time we believe that they will not only understand, but also agree with our decision. After all, we know we’re doing the right thing. The vast majority of you would behave the same way if they were in our place.” reads the statement on Facebook of the organization. In the end, the rival Clash of the Stars also rejected the match, and Růžička is banned from the Octagon for life. Only the promoters Boris Marhanský (RFA) and Petr Píno (I Am Fighter), who planned to fight Tadeáš with Sivák, are needlessly delaying their reaction. They should only express themselves today in a joint podcast.

Understandably, there is also criticism from among fighters who understand that similar behavior casts a dark shadow on combat sports. Patrik Kincl probably expressed himself most comprehensively, sending a sincere message to Růžiček. At the beginning of the video, he recalled that he went through something similar himself – he spent 2 years in prison for violent criminal activity. In the eyes of those around him, he said that at that time he wanted to be a dude and at the same time earn money so that he could devote himself to sports. Ružička, however, only fought because of his aggressiveness.

“You annoy a young girl with three people, and when a fighter who only saw the fit in a photo stands up for her, you shoot him there. That fighter had bigger balls than all of you put together to jump into you like that. And you’re still cutting him down there,” the Octagon champion did not take napkins, but at the same time he did not hide his disappointment that Růžička wasted such a talent for “a sense of some pseudo-fraternity”.

According to Patrik, a fighter must control his ego. In this regard, he reminded that someone often calls him on the roads, or even calls him into a fight. He also added that it was sport that saved him personally from a bad fate. “If I didn’t have sports, I’d be taking out the trash here in Hradec. But thanks to the fact that I decided to swallow my ego, I decided to cut myself off from those people in front of whom I wanted to be a dude, who dragged me into all this shit and sent me to do things here and there, so I managed to live a beautiful life.”

He also criticized the RFA and IAF promoters. “I understand that it is not easy to get to the limelight in this time of Octagon monopoly and you are looking for those ways. But damn, with the problems that Tadeáš has, and I think you knew this when you filmed it, you play with how he is picked up by the emergency team, URNA, what a tough guy he is. At the same time, you have experience with crime yourself, and I bet that none of you who made this up would voluntarily go back there.”

You can listen to the champion’s entire message here: