[ad_1]
When featherweight contender Ryan Hall watches the UFC 249 main event between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje, he is as excited as the rest of us.
The highly anticipated interim lightweight title fight takes place Saturday at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, behind closed doors.
Like most sports fans, Hall has a short list of fights that he thinks he should watch on television. by the Ultimate Fighter 22 Winner and acclaimed Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, Ferguson versus Gaethje ticks all the boxes.
“If you could do one of my magical happy land fights, obviously this will be one of those,” Hall told MMA Fighting as he appeared on What the hell. “I am a great admirer of Gaethje and a great admirer of Tony Ferguson.”
Ferguson enters the fight tied with an undisputed lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for the longest active winning streak in the UFC at 12. “El Cucuy” does not view the fight as an “interim” title fight, but rather his third title defense since introducing Kevin Lee in the third round of the UFC 226 main event in October 2017.
Hall, who is undefeated in four appearances in the Octagon, sees the dangers Ferguson brings to all of his fights, including UFC 249.
“Tony’s fighting ability, playing off his back, is long and creative and in some ways he’s a bit wild, and that makes him a wild card,” Hall said. “I still remember this image that was going around and showing the faces of all the people who have fought Tony Ferguson at the last moment and you say,” Holy Moly. They seem to have been in a slasher movie. “
“It’s not that he’s not a tough group of people. Tony can also absorb some damage sometimes, but I think one of the things that makes him so offensively dynamic is that he’s out there. You can find him and hit him a little bit, but by At the same time, when launched, it is overwhelmingly offensive. It is dangerous from all positions, it always attacks, it always moves and it obviously has the heart of a champion. “
After suffering the only two defeats of his career by Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier, Gaethje has been crying. “The Highlight” lived up to his nickname in his previous three fights with first-round finals by James Vick, Edson Barboza and Donald Cerrone.
While the skill sets may be different, Hall is fascinated by the hidden similarities between the two.
“Gaethje is very similar in that regard,” said Hall. “They just use a different set of tools. Obviously it is physically different. I know Tony can fight pretty well, himself. It is something that does not appear as often, not in an obvious sense in many of his fights.
“Apparently, Gaethje uses his fight more in reverse to prevent people from stopping him from Justin Gaethje. In older fights, I’ve seen highlights of him just throwing guys. I think he was an All-American, D-1, so you know he can definitely fight. “
Ferguson is currently a slight favorite over his dangerous counterpart. The winner of the fight will probably have a date with Nurmagomedov later this year in a unifying title.
Hall is a mom in an official prediction. He approaches the fight with a coin-tossing mentality.
“It is really difficult to choose,” he said. “MMA is such an interesting sport because there are so many ways to win and so many ways to lose that it is so volatile in nature compared to a basketball game or even a boxing match that it is relatively sterile.” I think in many ways people have really not figured out a way to fight MMA in a way that limits that volatility. That’s something Floyd Mayweather has done brilliantly in boxing, and it’s something that doesn’t resonate with the average fan, not even the average competitor.
“We see [Mayweather’s] and we look at his success over the years and think, ‘Oh man, there’s obviously something to this guy Floyd.’ When they touch him, or when he gets into trouble, he has the courage of an Arturo Gatti when he needs it. . He just turns that on and off.
“This fight [between Ferguson and Gaethje] it’s amazing because these two guys are there to lock you up. I really love the way Gaethje approaches the game because, he doesn’t say it, but I think a lot of people pretend to be Justin Gaethje, and they aren’t. They say, “I’m going to catch you, I’m going to knock you out and you can never knock me out,” and he doesn’t say things like that. Basically it says, “If you don’t knock me out, you’re going to have a very tough night.” But I didn’t say you couldn’t, I just don’t think you can. We’ll find out. ”
“I think he’s as tough on the head as anyone. He stands behind his words, and he’s an incredibly entertaining fighter, a super skilled guy. I’m excited as a fan to see this one.”
