Tony Ferguson vs Paddy Pimblett Prediction: El Cucuy to Take the Crown and Shut the Door

On the night of December 17th, the United States will hold a major tournament, UFC 296. In one of the main card fights, the legendary Tony Ferguson will try to break a series of defeats, facing the Englishman Paddy Pimblett, who is noisily riding the hype train. The bout will take place in the lightweight division.

One can write books about Tony Ferguson's career, incredible charisma, and adventures outside the octagon. When he was at his peak, each of his bouts got a bonus as the best, and his speeches were quoted and are still widely used. He won the interim title in the most competitive division and, according to many experts, was the only one who could realistically beat Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, their confrontation was repeatedly thwarted and remained an unfulfilled fan dream.

Khabib went his own way and finished his career as an undefeated champion. Following his tradition, Ferguson created problems for himself and has been trying to solve them ever since. When Khabib refused to fight for the last time, Tony went to face Justin Gaethje just a month after a grueling second weigh-in, lost, and then failed five more fights in a row.

It all becomes clear if you take the emotion out of it and look at Ferguson's opponents. After Gaethje, he lost to Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, Michael Chandler, Nate Diaz, and Bobby Green. There's no doubt that Paddy Pimblett wouldn't have a better chance of winning against those guys, either. Anyway, Tony is already 39 years old, he's gotten slower, and he's lost his cardio, and those facts are causing some concern among his fans. Not the level of his next opponent.

Dana White, in particular, and the UFC league are very fond of Pimblett and are handling him extremely carefully. This guy speaks beautifully and dances beautifully, but most importantly, he has a huge fan base in England. Paddy's fight with Tony will allow the UFC to make a lot of money, especially since he has a perfect chance of winning. Pimblett is currently riding a six-fight winning streak, four in the UFC. The league is pushing him, and the opposition has been so-so, to say the least. Luigi Vendramini (1-3 in the UFC), Rodrigo Vargas (1-3 in the UFC), Jordan Leovitt (4-3 in the UFC) - who are they and what do you know about them? Paddy fought Jared Gordon in his last bout and lost by one round, but the judges gave him the win, which shocked the audience.

Age is a serious obstacle, but not disastrous - just the other day, we saw the brilliant performance of 49-year-old Vener Galiev in the ACA. Ferguson's strength lies in his character and unbending nature. He will fight to the end, and Paddy Pimblett has never faced such fury in the cage. The childish games are gone, and this fight means so much more to each of them than we realize. It's bouts like this that are won by those who are willing to die but not give up. Is Paddy ready? The question is rhetorical. Tony Ferguson trains fanatically; he knows this is his last chance, and we believe he can do it this time. Paddy Pimblett is all smoke and mirrors. There's nothing about him that would surprise El Cucuy. And many experts, unlike the bookmakers, agree with us.