MMA Fighter of the Week: Tony Ferguson

MMA Fighter of the Week: Tony Ferguson

By Kieran Cobley

Tony Ferguson takes this weeks MMA Fighter of the Week honours following an immensely impressive TKO victory over former UFC and WEC Lightweight champion Anthony “Showtime” Pettis.

This was the first time “El Cucuy” had fought in the octagon following a serious knee injury and six months off for surgery and rehab as a result, but you wouldn’t know it from the way he fought.

Ferguson, who was stripped of his interim title after sustaining his knee injury, nailed Pettis with shot after shot, even using a variation of a superman punch off the side of the cage, whilst blocking and evading Pettis’ own fantastic striking, which included some weird handstand kick.

Pettis was cut in various parts of the head by Ferguson’s deadly elbow strikes, including a gash on his hairline which caused the fight to be temporarily halted while doctors inspected it, and a nasty cut over the eye late on in the second.

It was after the second round that Ferguson was declared the winner of the bout by TKO corner stoppage after Duke Roufus refused to let his long time trainee go into the final round with a broken hand, which Pettis got after a grappling exchange.

All in all, this was a fantastic fight from both men, and exemplified how martial artists should treat each other, with respect and honour, with both men showering the their with praise at the end of the fight, and holding each other’s arms aloft, and this will go down as one of the best lightweight fights of all time, and I know I’m not the only one hoping for a rematch somewhere down the line, hopefully for the title.

Honourable mentions go out to: Dominic Reyes, who beat Ovince Saint-Preux via decision, despite the fact it looked as though he KO’d the former American football player just before the buzzer, Derrick Lewis who came from behind to KO Alexander Volkov with only seconds to go in their fight, and with a herniated disc no less before giving the all time best post fight interview with Joe Rogan, and Scott Askham, who beat Marcin Wojcik by KO at KSW45 with a devastating body kick.

Who was your fighter of the week? Let me know on Twitter by tweeting me @Cobleyreporting.