Everyone, especially Tony Ferguson‘s most ardent fans want him to retire. ‘El Cucuy’, of course, is currently on the worst run of form of any star in the history of the promotion, having lost his past eight fights. Once the boogeyman of the stacked 155-pound division with twelve consecutive wins, ‘El Cucuy’s recent performances have been pathetic at best.

However, the former interim lightweight champion refuses to retire, despite even Dana White asking him to. Ferguson almost retired after his last fight at UFC Abu Dhabi in August last year as he left one glove in the Octagon after losing to Michael Chiesa. At the post-fight presser however, he clarified that he just loved to compete and wasn’t willing to give up fighting, even if he has to do it outside the UFC. Fans were hoping he would change his mind, but that hasn’t happened. In fact, ‘El Cucuy’ took to social media on the occasion of the New Year and told followers “Fight News Coming Soon”.

And verbose UFC analyst Chael Sonnen perfectly encapsulated the fans’ sentiment in a recent video on his YouTube channel. ‘The American Gangster’ said in the video that Ferguson had probably been released by the UFC after fighting out his contract and would be fighting somewhere else. However, the way Ferguson has handled this whole affair has puzzled the UFC analyst.

“If you sign somewhere particularly if you were a name like Tony Ferguson and that was going to be something interesting, is the very first thing they would tell you is ‘do not tell anybody. We are going to roll this out in our way.’ Which is where Tony coming out and screaming ‘I have news, oh I can’t tell you’ just generally is not how this game is played. But it is Tony and it is possible… This time he says he’s actually got a fight,” he said.

More importantly, Sonnen asked fans if they would be interested in finding out more about Ferguson’s next fight, or if it is irrelevant to them at this point of ‘El Cucuy’s career. “But where do you stand? Would you need any more details and would you want to hear what organization, what rule set who the opponent is? Would you want to hear any of that?” a clearly troubled Sonnen asked.

And to answer his questions- no. Almost no one would want to know that since almost no one thinks Ferguson should keep fighting. This raises a very important question.

If not the UFC, where will Tony Ferguson fight next?

Tony Ferguson may be on the worst losing streak of anyone ever in the history of the UFC and way past his prime, but he is still a star. After all, ‘El Cucuy’ is one of the most recognizable fighters in the sport at the moment, which counts for a lot. This is also why he was given such a long rope by the UFC.

If some little-known fighter who wasn’t loved by fans was on a losing skid like Ferguson, they must have been fired a long time back. However, this ‘cult-like’ recognition is perhaps doing more bad than good for the former interim champ at this point of his career. After all, the PFL-Bellator, which is losing stars left and right since their merger could well give Ferguson a spot on their roster, as could a BKFC, which doesn’t have any stars to speak of except Mike Perry.

While these promotions will know full well that Ferguson shouldn’t really be fighting anymore, he would still be one of the biggest, most well-known stars in their promotions, off of whom they could sell some PPVs and generate headlines. What do you think about Chael Sonnen’s take on Tony Ferguson teasing a new fight?