Tony Ferguson

Ferguson was born in Oxnard, California, but spent much of his childhood in Muskegon, Michigan. He is of Mexican descent. Ferguson is his Scottish-American stepfather’s surname. Ferguson participated in three sports at Muskegon Catholic Central High School: American football, baseball, and wrestling. He started defensive back for the Class 8 state football winners in 2000 and was a three-time All-State wrestler, winning the 152-pound division in 2002.

Ferguson attended Central Michigan University after high school before transferring to Grand Valley State University. He also attended Muskegon Community College. He did not finish his degree, but he did have a great collegiate wrestling career, earning the National Collegiate Wrestling Association national wrestling title in the 165-pound class in 2006.

Ferguson returned to California after graduation to be closer to his extended family, working in marketing and sales during the day and bartending at night. A client saw Ferguson’s cauliflower ear while working a bar shift one night and began a conversation about his wrestling past. The patron worked as a trainer at a local MMA gym and was invited to help some young MMA fighters with their wrestling. He soon chose to pursue a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career.

Ferguson began his professional MMA career in 2007 by competing in local organizations across California. In his early career, he defeated kickboxing champion Joe Schilling and lost to future World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) fighter Karen Darabedyan.

Ferguson applied numerous times to compete in the UFC’s reality show The Ultimate Fighter. After collecting a 10-2 professional record and winning the welterweight title in PureCombat, he was ultimately invited to fight in season 13 of the series in 2010. On The Ultimate Fighter: Team Lesnar vs. Team dos Santos, he participated as a welterweight.

Ferguson was chosen as Team Lesnar’s third choice. Ferguson knocked out Justin Edwards in the first round of his debut. In the quarterfinals, he fought Ryan McGillivray and won by TKO in the first round. In the semifinals, he faced Chuck O’Neil and won by TKO in the third round to progress to the final.

Tony won The Ultimate Fighter and a UFC contract after knocking out Ramsey Nijem in the opening round of the finals. Ferguson won his UFC debut against Aaron Riley by TKO (jaw injury) at UFC 135. He went on to defeat Yves Edwards before falling to Michael Jonson at UFC on Fox 3.

Ferguson would embark on a 12-fight winning streak after this defeat. He defeated Edson Barboza, Rafael dos Anjos, Anthony Pettis, and Donald Cerrone before winning the UFC Lightweight Championship against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 249. However, Khabib withdrew from the fight, and Ferguson instead faced Gaethje for the UFC Interim Lightweight Championship.

Ferguson was knocked out in the fifth round by Gaethje (punch). Following the fight, he fell decisively to Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush, and he is presently on a 5-bout losing run, including a loss to Nate Diaz in his most recent fight.