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It appears former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson won’t accept charges of driving under the influence without a fight. Having been taken into custody for a DUI after crashing his truck just last month in Hollywood, California, ‘El Cucuy’ is reportedly making an appeal.
Tony Ferguson’s May 7th car crash
In the early hours of May 7, Ferguson was arrested and booked into a Los Angeles County jail after his truck was involved in a multi-car accident with two parked cars outside a nightclub in Hollywood. TMZ reports that the fighter intends to appeal the DUI charges after online courts showed that El Cucuy pleaded ‘not guilty’ at the arraignment which took place on June 1.
One of the cars Ferguson allegedly crashed into belonged to rapper Cash Gotti, whose Mercedes appears to have been totaled due to the power of the impact. A bystander and possible friend of the singer posted pictures and a video of the crash on Twitter, claiming that a drunken Ferguson even tried to fight him on the street.
In a statement to MMA Junkie, a police spokesperson explained that Ferguson was placed under arrest after the accident. Furthermore, two people were sitting inside the truck at the moment of impact, though both were rescued by first responders without any major injuries.
It is worth noting that the DUI charges is not the fighter’s run-in with the law. Ferguson was hit with a restraining order in 2019, following a series of bizarre incidents where the fighter claimed that there were people inside his walls and that a chip had been implanted in his leg. The order was dropped once El Cucuy sought professional help.
Tony Ferguson will fight at UFC 291
Although it seems Tony Ferguson still has legal battles ahead of him, whatever his troubles, they haven’t stopped the former interim champion’s MMA career. While he awaits further developments, the 39-year-old is expected to take on Bobby Green in his next outing, at UFC 291.
Hopefully his next trip to the Octagon yields some positive results. Ferguson (25-8) could use a win; he’s currently riding a five-fight losing skid, having dropped bouts to Nate Diaz, Michael Chandler, Beneil Dariush, Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje in his most recent outings—and getting finished in three of them. This means that El Cucuy’s most recent UFC win dates back to June 2019, when he scored a TKO victory over now retired veteran Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
The former interim champion first rose to fame when he won the 13th season of The Ultimate Fighter, back in June 2011, when he knocked out Ramsey Nijem in the first round of their welterweight match. A member of team Brock Lesnar, Ferguson quickly dropped back to the lightweight division in his next outing.
In his prime Ferguson scored wins over some of the most notable lightweights of his generation, including the aforementioned Cerrone, Edson Barboza and former champions Rafael dos Anjos and Anthony Pettis, to name a few.
Ferguson is expected to take on Bobby Green at UFC 293, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The July 29 card is scheduled to be headlined by a match for the symbolic ‘BMF’ title, between former interim champions Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier. In the night’s co-main event, ex-light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz is set to face former middleweight title-holder Alex Pereira.
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