UFC 296 will have a lightweight battle between Tony Ferguson and Paddy Pimblett. ‘El Cucuy’ hasn’t been able to grab a win in his last six outings, which led him to train with David Goggins for his upcoming fight as he went through the ‘Hell Week’. However, former UFC fighter Dan Hardy believes that Ferguson did not take the right approach in training for his fight against Pimblett on December 16th.

Tony Ferguson was at one point one of the most legitimate threats in the lightweight division, with a 12-fight winning streak and the interim lightweight champion in his grasp. But his UFC career started to go into a downward spiral after he lost to Justin Gaethje at UFC 249. Since then, things have only become worse for ‘El Cucuy’ and Dan Hardy mentioned Ferguson’s problems and the aspects where he is lacking the most. Let’s see what he had to say.

Dan Hardy believes that Tony Ferguson is past his prime

During a recent episode of ‘Submission Radio’, Dan Hardy analyzed the upcoming fight between Tony Ferguson and Paddy Pimblett. He believes that ‘The Baddy’ is going to showcase much better striking than he has before. Similarly, Hardy also claimed that Pimblett is going to respect what Ferguson is capable of bringing to the table.

“I think we’re gonna see an evolved striking skill set Paddy in this one. I think he’s gonna respect the ground game of Tony Ferguson as well as the toughness,” Hardy stated. On the other hand, given how ‘El Cucuy’ performed in his last few fights, the former mixed martial artist believes that he has slowed down in a lot of aspects, which involves his pace and his chin.

“Ultimately, he [Ferguson] has lost his step. He’s not as fast as he used to be and he can’t take a shot the way that he used to be able to,” the MMA veteran further stated. He believes these factors can come into play during the fight and Paddy Pimblett would capitalize on it.

Dan Hardy also mentioned that he believes that Tony Ferguson wasted a lot of energy this time for his upcoming fight. He focused more on what he already had and did not try to work on the aspects that required improvement. “I think Tony’s mis-invested his energies in this training camp. Like, he did not need cardio or heart. If one thing is going to stay with Tony Ferguson, it is those two things,” said Hardy. Meanwhile, he also opined on Ferguson’s training with David Goggins, which recently went viral on social media. Let’s see what he had to say about that.

Hardy claims the training ‘El Cucuy’ had with David Goggins isn’t going to help him

Like many other MMA fans and personalities, Dan Hardy is also aware of the training Tony Ferguson underwent with former Navy SEAL and motivational speaker David Goggins. He mentioned that the training session did not involve anything to do with his improving his fighting skills, but rather it just focused on cardio. The MMA veteran said, “He’s losing his ability to react, he’s losing his ability to move at speed. These are the things he’s gonna struggle with in the fight and he’s not done anything from what we’ve seen training with David Goggins to bolster these things.”

In addition to that, the former MMA fighter also revealed that he believes Tony Ferguson worked too much and wasted a lot of energy with the David Goggins training. Rather, he should have focused on improving his basics, and the decision he made could haunt him later. “I have a concern that he’s probably ran himself into the ground with this training… I think we’ll be looking back on this in hindsight and he’ll be thinking to himself, ‘I should have worked on my basics instead of driving myself to the ground on a treadmill,'” the MMA veteran added.

Read More: Prior to UFC 296, 39-Year-Old ‘Dog’ Tony Ferguson Justifiably Backed by Former Opponent to Vanquish Paddy Pimblett After 6 Consecutive Losses- ‘Never Gonna Break’

People are already talking about Tony Ferguson’s 6-fight losing streak and the chances of him retiring with another loss. But can ‘El Cucuy’ bounce back against a hungrier and hitherto undefeated in the UFC Paddy Pimblett? We will find that out this weekend at the T-Mobile Arena.

Watch This Story: Watch: Khabib Nurmagomedov Invents Another Dagestani Basketball Style Game