Tony Ferguson has revealed that he linked up with David Goggins for his own reasons, not necessarily to prepare for UFC 296.
At the time, former interim lightweight champion Ferguson was riding a lengthy losing streak and needed a big performance against the unproven Paddy Pimblett. As a result, he pulled out all the stops and got into peak shape under the tutelage of former Navy SEAL and influencer Goggins.
Ferguson became the only athlete to ever complete the influencer’s gruelling ‘hell week’ assignment that included hours of high-octane cardio and push-ups. However, it was all for nought as he suffered yet another defeat to Pimblett and hasn’t won a fight since.
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Tony Ferguson explains the true reason for David Goggins link-up
Now, Tony Ferguson has set his sights on the ring, making his debut for Misfits Boxing on Saturday night at the AO Arena in Manchester against Salt Papi. And speaking exclusively with Bloody Elbow, he explained that the Goggins experiment went beyond just training for a fight.
“I’m the only one who had the balls to be able to go through hell week,” Ferguson insisted. “I’ll back up chief any f—ing day, I got his six any f—ing time and it doesn’t matter what anybody says about him.
“I went through that, I had heart-to-hearts with him and he was the one. People were like ‘oh the training wasn’t right’. I took that side quest because I needed it, it wasn’t for the UFC it was to bring the man out of me again.
“It was to be able to say ‘You know what Tony? I know what kind of person you are’. I’m the same f—ing guy. I did need it and he put me back to where I needed to be.”
Tony Ferguson explains the benefits of David Goggins’ training methods
While the training didn’t get him the result he wanted, Ferguson still swears by the work he did with Goggins. The controversial trainer’s methods are brutal, but clearly got the former champion back into the position he felt he needed to be in to compete again.
“I always wanted to be the big bodybuilder type of dude,” Ferguson continued, flexing his muscles. “But he was like ‘dude, you don’t need to be that, you’re a strong motherf—er because I put you through the ringer and you were able to get through it’.
“Nobody else could get through it you saw [Israel Adesanya] go through it? He lasted, what, a day? And that’s not talking s— because I’m going to be real with you, Goggins didn’t have a pamphlet with numbers and s— like that. He goes off of everybody.
“You need people like me out there, you need people like Goggins out there to f—ing be able to pull the logs and the boats. I am the f—ing BOAT. Best of All Time, motherf—er. GOATs come and go, but BOATs stay afloat.”