One of the most beloved UFC fighters, Tony Ferguson will enter the octagon at UFC 262 to defend his legacy. After two consecutive defeats against Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira. there is a possibility that we might not see the old Tony Ferguson back again,.
Tony Ferguson was once considered an unstoppable force in the lightweight division with 13 wins in a row. It was believed that he was the one who would beat Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, times have changed now and he will go up against a rising contender in the division, Beneil Dariush.
Beneil Dariush is on a 7 fight win streak in the division and is a bad matchup for Tony Ferguson, especially in a 3 round fight. And he is coming into UFC 262 with a strategy to dismantle Tony Ferguson. In the UFC 262 countdown video, Dariush reveals his gameplan for Ferguson and stated:
“Tony he is either number one or number two as the best lightweights of all time. And everything he brings to me, I have to bring back two or three. Because he’s so wild if you hit him with one, he’ll be like that’s okay. I till trade you one for one. I have to make sure I put some hurt on him so he doesn’t want to trade. And that’s how the fight has to be. I have got to make sure he has nothing for me.”
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Beneil Dariush is a bad matchup for Tony Ferguson
Beneil Dariush is not going to be an easy matchup for Tony Ferguson. Dariush has good endurance, striking, solid grappling, and some serious knock-out power. Ferguson’s biggest weapon in a fight has to be his pace and cardio. Well, Dariush can match the pace of Ferguson and cardio in a 3 round fight.
Had it been a 5 round affair then Ferguson would have been the favorite because of his superior conditioning. Nevertheless, Ferguson has all the skillsets to beat Dariush.
Ferguson will need to make it a striking battle against Beneil Dariush and try to beat him in the volume game. Ferguson is extremely tough and i’s unlikely that Dariush is going to knock out Ferguson within 3 rounds. If Ferguson can put the pressure on Dariush from round 1 then it’s likely that he will get a TKO win over Dariush who has been knocked out before on multiple occasions.