The Covid-19 pandemic has effected pretty much every form of live sports entertainment and while we may be nearing the end of the pandemic, some historic moments happened during the trying time. In a sport that is famed for being a spectator sport, Mixed Martial Arts had to find away to continue and at least for the UFC, the way to continue was putting on fight cards that will not leave our memories anytime soon. One of the biggest fights during the early stages of the pandemic was that of Justin Gaethje fighting Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 for the interim lightweight title. Originally tipped to be Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov finally throwing down, the pandemic forced the lightweight champ out of the fight, with Gaethje stepping in to fight for the interim strap.
One thing about this fight in hindsight is the brutality inflicted with not a single fan in the arena in Abu Dhabi. Tony Ferguson was the streaking interim champion, his date with Khabib a foregone conclusion. However, fans were shocked to find that Justin Gaethje wasn’t just a Homer Simpson wannabe. He took the fight to Tony, hurting him badly multiple times over the course of five rounds where Gaethje would land over 72% of his attempted significant strikes and landed 100 of 153 attempted head strikes to “El Cucuy” and by the time the final round came around, Gaethje had the fight all but won and after a wild exchange, Ferguson backed away, visually shaking his head. This moment of weakness and the culmination of the damage “The Highlight” had administered was enough for referee Herb Dean to step in, handing the win, and the interim title, to Gaethje.
Gaethje would go on to fight and lose to Khabib Nurmagomedov but after beating Michael Chandler in an all time classic back in November, he’s tipped to face Charles Oliveira for the lightweight strap at UFC 274 in Brazil. Since this fight, Tony Ferguson on the other hand has dropped three in a row including his loss to Gaethje, dropping a decision loss to both Oliveira and Beneil Dariush in back to back fights with it being unclear what is next for “El Cucuy.”
