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UFC lightweight Tony Ferguson has never served in the military, although his exotic training methods and eccentric fighting style might indicate that.
Born Anthony Armand Ferguson Padilla in Oxnard, California, Ferguson spent most of his childhood in Muskegon, Michigan. While Tony Ferguson is of Mexican heritage, he derives his surname from his Scottish American Stepfather.
Tony Ferguson was a three-sport athlete at Muskegon Catholic Central High School in American Football, Baseball and Wrestling. After high school, Ferguson enrolled at Central Michigan University before transferring to Grand Valley State University.
While Ferguson failed to complete his degree, he did win the 2006 National Collegiate Wrestling Association national wrestling championship in the 165-lb division.
After college, Tony Ferguson moved back to California and started working day shifts as a sales person and evenings as a bartender. One night while working a shift at the bar, a local MMA trainer struck up a conversation with Ferguson after noticing his cauliflower ears. Shortly afterwards, 'El Cucuy' decided to pursue a career in MMA and the rest is history.
Tony Ferguson's next fight
Tony Ferguson will look to bounce back from back-to-back losses when he faces Beneil Dariush at UFC 262. Taking full cognizance of his opponent's arsenal, Ferguson said in a recent interview with Submission Radio:
"He’s been doing the game for a long time. He’s over at Huntington beach with Rafael Cordeiro. He’s a southpaw, he’s very strong on his left side. He’s very game in mixing it up. So, that’s why I’ve been mixing my s*it up. Because I got too one-dimensional. When you get too one-dimensional, you start to plateau. And as a master trainer, you should be able to realize that and then understand that, make some changes, and then be able to get your athlete back on the same program, which was, not peaking, but steadily increasing. Paying attention to the smaller details are always going to make the best things. And Beneil and their team, they got a s*itload of people over there helping them out. They got like an Ultimate Fighter team. It feels like I’m back on The Ultimate Fighter, guys. It really does.”
