Ferguson says he's 'too old to retire,' eyes early 2025 UFC return

Tony Ferguson isn't hanging up the gloves yet - though his reasoning might not make sense.

"I'm too old to retire," the longtime UFC fighter said in a video published Monday on Demetrious Johnson's YouTube channel. "I'm 40 years old. I'm halfway to 80. I've been competing since I was five years old in multiple sports."

Ferguson, once one of the top lightweights in the world, broke the record for the longest losing streak in UFC history in August, suffering his eighth straight defeat when Michael Chiesa submitted him in the first round at UFC Abu Dhabi.

Ferguson briefly hinted at retirement after the fight, leaving one glove in the Octagon. But moments later, while heading backstage, he confirmed he wasn't leaving the sport.

"It's not like I don't know anything else," Ferguson said. "I do. (But) I'm still able to compete. When somebody can run a sprint faster than me, then maybe I'll start to consider it."

"El Cucuy," who turns 41 in February, said he wants to return to the cage early next year.

"We're gonna probably take the rest of this season and figure some things out, and we're coming back hard either January or February," Ferguson said.

Ferguson has worked with various coaches throughout the last few years of his career. He said he plans to train with someone new ahead of his next fight and has already approached a few coaches to gauge interest, including Tristar Gym's Firas Zahabi, who famously trained UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre.

"Firas Zahabi is one of the coaches I always admired," Ferguson said, "because he was GSP's coach and GSP was always my target."

Ferguson dominated the lightweight division from 2015-19, winning 12 in a row and reaching an interim title in 2017. But the California native fell off a cliff in 2020, suffering a lopsided defeat to Justin Gaethje that led to the worst losing streak ever.

Ferguson's most recent victory came against Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone in June 2019.