SUMMARY
- Tony Ferguson recalled his sparring session with Rose Namajunas where the UFC strawweight surprised him with a head kick.
- Ferguson claimed he advised Namajunas to strike Zhang Weili similarly at UFC 261 to win the UFC Strawweight Championship.
UFC veteran Tony Ferguson opened up about his conversation with Rose Namajunas before the UFC strawweight fighter’s title fight against Zhang Weili. Ferguson claimed he advised Namajunas to go for the head-kick KO.
Ferguson was a guest on a recent episode of the JAXXON PODCAST. The 40-year-old fighter gave an insight into several points of his career including the beef with UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov. He also opened up about his sparring encounter with Namajunas.
Ferguson was initially hesitant to spar with Namajunas citing the fact that she was a woman. However, Namajunas saw no inequality as she surprised him with a head kick. He said, “Well she kicked me in the head and it was like the funniest f*cking thing and I was just like ‘Damn!'”
Ferguson said Namajunas texted him before her fight against Weili at UFC 261. She asked him for tips and Ferguson responded, “Do what you do when we first met,” hinting toward a head kick.
With just 78 seconds into the first round, Namajunas pulled out the head kick KO to end Weili’s 21-match winning streak. Namajunas became a two-time UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion after her win at UFC 261.
Rose Namajunas credited her partner Pat Barry’s kickboxing skills for her head kick KO
After her extraordinary victory over Weili, Namajunas was interviewed by ESPN. She was asked about her training that led to the knockout. ‘Thug Rose’ credited Pat Barry and his kickboxing in China.
“I knew that was the vulnerability she had,” Namajunas said. “Pat’s (Pat Barry) been to China, he’s kickboxed there for a long time in his early days. A lot of his knockouts came from the left high kick over there. It’s just something that we have worked on.”
In the rematch just months later, Namajunas got the better of Weili again. She defeated the Chinese fighter via unanimous decision at UFC 268 to defend her title. However, Carla Esparza defeated Namajunas to win the title at UFC 274. The title changed hands again as Weili stopped Esparza from defending the championship successfully at UFC 281. Weili will now defend her title against Chinese counterpart Yan Xiaonan at UFC 300.
Tony Ferguson “almost died” making weight for the title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov
UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov was scheduled to defend his title against Ferguson on April 18, 2020, at UFC 249. On the recent JAXXON PODCAST, Ferguson explained how difficult it was for him to make weight for the fight.
Tony Ferguson says he cut 28lbs in four days to make 155lbs, for the “statement weigh-in” he did after the Khabib fight fell through. He says he almost died trying to do it.
To this day, I believe this was one of the main reasons why Tony performed so poorly against Justin… pic.twitter.com/21Qa9enD3p
— Ovin Vithanage (@OvinVithanage) February 22, 2024
Ferguson weighed around 183 on Sunday, less than a week before the weigh-ins. He put himself in such a grave condition by consuming unhealthy food. He claimed he “almost died” making weight at 155 lbs on that Friday morning.
When asked why he would leave it so late, Ferguson responded, “I don’t know and it was kind of like self-defeating. It was like, any kind of thing like that I would always like make it harder for myself. I don’t know why I’ve always been that way and it would just kind of like ‘F*ck it I’m going to do it.’ And I did it and like I said it was on that Thursday night I was finishing my mile run I had like maybe a pound left [I] almost died.”
#OnThisDay in 2020, @Justin_Gaethje vs Tony Ferguson headlined an absolutely STACKED card at UFC 249!
[ Watch the full event back on @UFCFightPass now ] pic.twitter.com/IaxinUoAfN
— UFC (@ufc) May 9, 2023
However, the fight never took place. Khabib was unable to leave his home country Russia due to the restrictions related to the pandemic. Tony Ferguson, on the other hand, agreed to fight Justin Gaethje for the Interim UFC Lightweight Championship. The event got postponed and eventually took place on May 9, 2020. Gaetjhe won the bout via unanimous decision.
