{"id":374913,"date":"2021-02-01T16:56:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T00:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=374913"},"modified":"2021-02-01T16:56:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T00:56:06","slug":"justin-gaethje-believes-tony-ferguson-was-never-an-elite-lightweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/justin-gaethje-believes-tony-ferguson-was-never-an-elite-lightweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Gaethje believes Tony Ferguson was never an “elite lightweight”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Gaethje doesn’t believe Tony Ferguson was ever an elite lightweight.<\/p>\n

At UFC 249, Gaethje took on Ferguson for the interim lightweight title. Ferguson entered the fight on a 12-fight winning streak and many thought “El Cucuy” would win. However, that was far from what happened as Gaethje pieced up Ferguson on the feet and won by TKO in the fifth round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ferguson then returned at UFC 256 and suffered a decision loss to Charles Oliveira where he was dominated. For Gaethje, after seeing the back-to-back losses, he doesn’t think Ferguson is an elite lightweight and says Ferguson was never one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, Tony has always been that man,\u201d Gaethje\u00a0told ESPN<\/a> (via The Body Lock<\/a>). \u201cGuys constantly went in there and fought in the chaos and refused to create space. I don\u2019t know why, [Anthony] Pettis and [Donald] Cerrone, these guys weren\u2019t able to do what I did. But I think that was there the whole time.<\/p>\n

\u201cFans not being there really helped, stayed focus, keep everything internal,” Gaethje continued. “That\u2019s a huge factor when you\u2019re fighting Tony because just his face alone makes you wanna fight. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s done by any means, I just don\u2019t think he\u2019s an elite lightweight. I don\u2019t think he ever was. I just think his skills were really effective in the way people were fighting him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is hard to say, Ferguson was never an elite lightweight. He beat the likes of Kevin Lee, Rafael dos Anjos, Anthony Pettis, and Donald Cerrone. Yet, Justin Gaethje believes Ferguson will have a hard time being competitive now after all the damage he took.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was impressed with Oliveira but yeah, I don\u2019t want to take anything away from him but Tony was not the same person,\u201d Gaethje added. \u201cNo one\u2019s going to be the same person after you get hit in the face that many times. Ever. You fight with less confidence and his confidence is something that made him so dangerous and his lack of confidence now is going to be a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you agree with Justin Gaethje that Tony Ferguson was never an elite lightweight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justin Gaethje doesn’t believe Tony Ferguson was ever an elite lightweight. At UFC 249, Gaethje took on Ferguson for the interim lightweight title. Ferguson entered the fight on a 12-fight winning streak and many thought “El Cucuy” would win. However, that was far from what happened as Gaethje pieced up Ferguson on the feet and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":374914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[25154,10113,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJustin Gaethje believes Tony Ferguson was never an "elite lightweight" | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Justin Gaethje doesn't believe Tony Ferguson was ever an elite lightweight and doesn't think he will ever become one in the UFC.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/justin-gaethje-believes-tony-ferguson-was-never-an-elite-lightweight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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