On Saturday night in Las Vegas, three fighters will settle in to the UFC 262 hot seat. For various reasons–be it maintaining relevancy in the division or in the promotion–Tony Ferguson, Ronaldo Souza, and Andrea Lee will enter the Octagon needing a win badly. All three are in the midst of notable losing streaks, and for Lee, it’s the first set of consecutive losses in her career. The question is, whose seat will be the hottest inside the UFC Apex.
UFC 262 Hot seat: Tony Ferguson
First, let’s be clear. Tony Ferguson isn’t in danger of being released if he lost on Saturday. At least he shouldn’t be unless he puts in a career worse performance. That’s why my rating for the heat on his seat is not scorching. However, the 37-year-old former interim lightweight champion is at a career crossroads. Although he has only lost two in a row, his setbacks to Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira were shocking. In that, we saw the 155-pound demon that won 12 straight in the promotion, and struck fear in the hearts of his contemporaries, exercised into the nether realm in one-sided losses.
Yet, those defeats came to a former interim champion and the man competing for the division’s title in the main event on the same card. That is what makes his bout with Beneil Dariush at UFC 262 so important. It’ll answer if his recent defeats are evidence that father time is pulling on his “El Cucuy’s” cape, or he’s still an elite fighter who fell short against top fighters just a little better.
Dariush is the perfect variable to test this experiment. “Benny” is one of the hottest talents in the division, but as the ninth-ranked lightweight he’s just trying to get closer to level of Gaethje and Oliveira. Simply put, Ferguson needs a W if he ever hopes to contend for a world championship again.
Heat rating: 6 out of 10
UFC 262 Hot seat: Ronaldo Souza
The man known as “Jacare” Souza has had a rough go of it over the last four years. After his 2017 win over Tim Boetsch–which was also the last time he faced an unranked foe–he’s lost five of his next seven. Granted, some of those losses came to current light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and perennial contender Jack Hermansson, but Souza’s career is trending in the wrong direction.
At 41-years-old he is unranked for the first time in years, on a three fight losing skid, and enters the Octagon off a highlight real knockout loss to Kevin Holland in December. Seeing as how the UFC has released aging. and pricey, stars like Alistair Overeem, Diego Sanchez and Junior Dos Santos in recent months, the Brazilian is in a perilous position right now. If he wants to continue being a UFC competitor he desperately needs to beat Andre Muniz at UFC 262. If he were to fall to his ten years younger opponent, and lose four straight, the UFC’s alligator pond at middleweight could be dried up for good.
Heat rating: 9 out of 10
UFC 262 Hot seat: Andrea Lee
After building a name for herself in Invicta Fighting Championship and Legacy Fighting Alliance, Andrea Lee started her UFC career a perfect 3-0. The Louisiana native proved ready for big fights and ranked competition, and that is exactly what the promotion gave her in flyweight bouts with Joanne Calderwood, Lauren Murphy and Roxanne Modafferi. Unfortunately, the 32-year-old came up short in all three of those Octagon contests.
The eleventh ranked “KGB” is in the midst of the first losing streak of her 10 year career. A loss to Antonina Shevchenko certainly wouldn’t put her in line for a pink slip, but it definitely should jettison her out of the top-15. As well as put her in a position where her next bout is a win-or-get-released scenario. In scoring a W over Valentina Shevchenko’s twelfth ranked big sister, it would cure a whole bunch of her recent ills, and could possibly bump her back into the top-10.
The heat on her seat isn’t scorching, but it is starting to burn.
Heat rating: 7 out of 10
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