Daniel Cormier believes it's time Tony Ferguson had a step down in competition.

Ferguson, 39, suffered yet another defeat after getting submitted by Bobby Green in their lightweight encounter at UFC 291 this past weekend.

It marked his sixth defeat in a row — including his third consecutive by stoppage — with one more potential loss equaling the all-time record set by former lightweight champion BJ Penn.

Many observers were calling for Ferguson to retire regardless of the result at UFC 291, and the calls were even louder after he was outclassed by an unranked opponent in Green.

For Cormier — a staunch Ferguson critic in the past — there are two options for “El Cucuy” — either fight lesser competition or compete outside the UFC.

“Five fights to the title, that was his catchline all week, but now he’s lost six in a row,” Cormier said on his ESPN show DC & RC (via MMA Junkie). “Look man, this guy is not losing to terrible fighters. He’s lost to (Nate) Diaz, (Michael) Chandler, (Beneil) Dariush, (Charles) Oliveira, and Bobby Green now. But the reality is, he’s 39 years old, and while he still has a ton of heart to fight, it just does not seem like his body is allowing him to do everything that his mind is telling him to do.

“Because of that, and only that, I think it might be time for him to either say to the UFC, ‘I want to keep fighting but the competition needs to go down,’ or go fight somewhere else. He’s going to be mad at me about it, but yes, the fight’s still there. It just does not seem the body is able to respond in the way his mind is telling it to. So, I tap in (on Ferguson walking away).”

Given that Green was an unranked opponent compared to Ferguson's previous five opponents, it looks like the only option is for him to fight veterans approaching the end of their careers as well.

Other than that, his best bet is to depart the UFC and go fight lesser competition in smaller promotions such as Bellator, ONE Championship or PFL.

Of course, Tony Ferguson isn't one to retire when told to or listen to his critics, so it's doubtful he'll pay much attention to anyone's advice, much less, Cormier's.

But while he didn't mention anything about retirement in his first post-fight statement, he did state he'd discuss his future with UFC president Dana White and the rest of the brass.