Tony Ferguson (R) looks to punch Justin Gaethje (L) in their Interim lightweight title fight during UFC 249 (Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)
Justin Gaethje defeated Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 with a dominating display
Rashad Holloway, the boxing coach of Tony Ferguson, spoke with Helen Yee after the Justin Gaethje fight at UFC 249.
Ferguson came into this clash as the slight favourite to win the UFC Lightweight interim title. However, it was Gaethje that ended up taking the big win thanks to a dominant display.
Gaethje barely put a foot wrong in the clash and was tactical about taking on the unorthodox Ferguson. El Cucuy couldn’t do much damage to his rival, and the fight was stopped in the fifth round by Herb Dean.
Gaethje did a lot of right things in the clash and Yee asked Holloway the one particular thing that stood out from Gaethje’s performance:
“I want to say his patience.
“Gaethje fought the same way that we planned. Nothing with Gaethje changed as far with style of fighting.”
Holloway added that there was nothing different from his fighting style, but Gaethje was methodical and didn’t rush at Ferguson:
“When he hurt Tony he didn’t jump on him right away, he didn’t get reckless like we saw with [Dustin] Poirier, like you saw him with Eddie Alvarez.
“He stayed patient, he stayed calm, he led Tony bring the fight to him, instead of him rushing and attacking so much.”
In between one of the rounds, Gaethje’s coaches were telling him not to go crazy. The American had some wild swings at Ferguson and failed to connect but that was taking a lot of Gaethje.
That advice seemed to work as Gaethje was calmer after this, and Holloway touched upon this too.
Ferguson’s coach credited Gaethje’s corner for working on him during the fight and respected the work they did with him.
The coach also said that a fighter’s corner has to be an additional pair of eyes in the Octagon. Fighters don’t get to see everything and this is where you have to respect your coaches.
Holloway also said that Gaethje was the better man on the night as the American walked away with the interim UFC Lightweight gold.
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