Tony Ferguson is prepared to make his Queensberry Rules debut this weekend but wonders where his opponent's mindset is at ahead of their Misfits Boxing 22 clash. Ferguson will do battle with Salt Papi for the interim MFB middleweight title on a card headlined by Luke Rockhold taking on Darren Till for the MFB bridgerweight title.
During an interview with Seconds Out, the former UFC interim lightweight champion covered multiple topics including where he thinks the headspace is at for his influencer boxer adversary Saturday in Manchester, England. Touching on some of the deeper machinations of this matchup set for August 30th, Ferguson said,
“When it goes into the fight, I don't think that he's changed too much in his game. He's going to use what works for him, which is going to be that southpaw stance in his lead hand and his backhand. So he's going to be looking to do what he's going to do, but he's not going to have his hands full."
"It was just him being a [expletive] and not being able to admit it in front of my face. So I talk about character and I'm just a man. When I shook his hand, he kind of shook it like this and I had to show him how to shake it the real way. I'm not an influencer at all, but I go in there and make sure I handle my business. So Saturday night, he's going to have his hands full."
"When you put cameras on somebody, you see the real person come out. This is me. That's him. So, I'm not him, so I'm going to go in there and do what I got to do."
Tony Ferguson and the redemptive path to potentially more interim gold
Tony Ferguson aims to snap an eight fight losing skid that he has been on from his UFC tenure. After his planned GFL bout with Dillon Danis, who is also on this MFB 22 card, fell through in May, Ferguson is presumably chomping at the bit to just get out there and compete in 2025.
Salt Papi, government name Nathaniel Bustamante, has put together a 6-1 record on the influencer boxing circuit and has more localized experience fighting in the big gloves than 'El Cucuy' does.
