John McCarthy believes Tony Ferguson will be among 60 roster cuts by UFC
John McCarthy believes Tony Ferguson’s time as a UFC fighter is over.
In the co-main event of UFC 256, Ferguson was dominated by Charles Oliveira which was his second loss in a row. Following the loss, many wondered what would be next for “El Cucuy” and for McCarthy, he thinks the UFC will release him.
“I think they’re going to cut him,” McCarthy said on his Weighing In podcast with Josh Thomson (h/t TheBodyLock). “I could be wrong about that but the reason I say it is first off, Tony has always had an adversarial relationship with certain people with the UFC. He’s felt like he’s been held back, cheated in certain things. And so you have that. That’s okay, you can say those things when you’re winning.
“But now you take a look at his last two performances — the Justin Gaethje fight, he fought his ass off but he got beat badly. And now this one, he got beat badly,” McCarthy continued. “So you look at your lightweights and you go, ‘alright, is Tony Ferguson going to be fighting for the title?’ That ain’t going to happen. You would figure he would have to win somewhere between four or five fights in a row against top talent and that’s probably not going to happen.
“So, he’s not going to fight for the title. So you’re going to keep him for what reasons now? So he can beat your young talent that’s not smart and wise enough to fight with him at this time? That’s not going to do you any good as a promotion,” he concluded. “So I don’t know, I just look and say he might be one of the guys in that 60.”
It would be surprising if Tony Ferguson was released by the promotion off of two losses given he is a big name. However, no one expected Yoel Romero to be released so anything is possible.
