Tony Ferguson’s Emotional Win Tainted as Salt Papi Dismisses UFC Legend’s Round 3 Finish

After an eight-fight losing streak in the UFC, combat fans didn’t expect Tony Ferguson to make a comeback. Ever. So ahead of his Misfits Boxing debut against Nathaniel ‘Salt Papi’ Bustamante, they didn’t have big expectations from the veteran MMA fighter. Only this time, he proved everyone wrong! He snapped the losing streak and earned his first combat sports win since 2019.

Ferguson defeated Bustamante with a come-from-behind third-round TKO, and that is said to be a huge betting upset. With this win, Ferguson, 41, captured the Misfits Boxing interim middleweight championship. “One win changes everything,” he said. The former UFC fighter had some good moments in the early rounds, but Bustamante was clearly in the lead. That changed, though, in the third round when Tony Ferguson turned up the heat, backing his opponent onto the ropes with a barrage of punches. Bustamante may have deserved a standing eight count, but the referee waved the fight off altogether. But after the fight, the boxer shared his take, dismissing the loss. “Nothing really. I think I did well, I felt like it was an early stoppage,” Bustamante told YouTuber Fred Beck during a post-fight interview.

In the meantime, Ferguson appears to have already received another challenge for his next boxing adventure. After the fight concluded, ‘Slim’ Albaher, who had defeated ‘Salt Papi’ previously, hopped on X to challenge Ferguson for a boxing match. “I wanna box Tony Ferguson,” ‘Slim’ wrote. Yet, he isn’t alone in wanting a piece of Ferguson.

Tony Ferguson receives a fight offer right after his win

After Ferguson’s exit from the UFC, he was expected to fight Dillon Danis in the Global Fight League (GFL). However, after GFL collapsed, those plans went down the drain, and the former decided to make his boxing debut with Misfits instead. Following his win over Bustamante, Ferguson and Dillon Danis, who defeated Warren Spencer in the same event, set up a future fight.

“We’ve got to do it for the belt now,” Danis told the UFC legend inside the ring. “We’ve got to do it for the MMA belt. You had the UFC belt, now you come for my belt. Congrats on the win.” Ferguson is now the Misfits Boxing Pro interim Middleweight Championship, and Danis won the inaugural Misfits MMA title.

It appears Tony Ferguson is seeing a career resurgence after his difficult last few years in the UFC. While Bustamante might not agree with the stoppage, he will have to come to terms with it. What did you think of Ferguson’s win? Let us know in the comments below.