Tony Ferguson appeared to announce his retirement in the Octagon at UFC On ABC 7 on Saturday after suffering a first round submission loss to Michael Chiesa, but then appeared to change his mind before he’d even made it backstage.
In his post-fight interview in the Octagon the 40-year-old Ferguson had stopped just short of making his retirement official by telling Daniel Cormier that he was only going to leave one glove in the Octagon to symbolize that he might one day return.
“I don’t want to retire,” Ferguson told DC. “I really don’t. But I love the UFC and I don’t want to go anywhere else. So, I’m not going to put both gloves down. I’m going to put one and I’m going to keep the other one just in case.”
However, as he made his way out of the arena Ferguson suddenly threw his other glove into the crowd and then declared to the camera that he wasn’t done fighting yet.
“It ain’t time yet man, I got a lot of sh*t to work on,” Ferguson stated as he made his way backstage.
Saturday’s event marked Ferguson’s eighth loss in a row, becoming a new UFC record in the process. As such it remains to be seen whether he’ll be allowed to compete again in the Octagon or will now have to go and fight elsewhere, but even before this past weekend Dana White had made it clear in the past that he believes Ferguson should retire.
