Tony Ferguson had a few things to get off his chest on Wednesday, and now his words could very well end up being the hot topic of conversation all the way up until his Octagon return Saturday at UFC 274.
During a session with assembled media (video via MMAjunkie.com), Ferguson aired his grievances with the UFC and Dana White. It started with his UFC 274 opponent, Michael Chandler, who Ferguson said had “Dana White privilege” after receiving a lightweight title shot in his second Octagon appearance last year.
“I don’t think it’s very funny,” Ferguson said. “Everybody is looking at it. They’re smiling and laughing, but nobody is saying s—t. I’m the kid that’s up here with Dana Brown privilege, I guess, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t think it’s very funny anymore. I don’t think you guys should think that’s very funny. I’m taking this weekend very f—king seriously. I’ll kick this Dana White boy’s a--”
Ferguson clarified that he has no issue with Chandler personally, but more so with what he called “retaliation tactics” from the UFC. Ferguson’s biggest issue is in regard to fighter pay.
“I think we’re underpaid, personally, I’m going to be real,” Ferguson said. “I’m not going to say too much … I asked Dana to box, he said f—k no. I’m like why? I want to go play baseball, I want to go do other pro sports. I’m an athlete. I grew up doing different pro sports at a very high level. I won a state championship in football, we were 27-1. I come from Grand Valley State University as a wrestler, I want to go do wrestling. I’ve got uncle Brock [Lesnar] that’s right there watching me.
“I want to go do all these couple things but then I have this guy right here acting like a f—ing drug dealer, telling me I can’t go do this s—t. I want to go make more money for my family.”
Ferguson also had some bitterness regarding the freak 2018 injury that forced him out of a lightweight title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov. During pre-fight promotional duty, “El Cucuy” tripped on some wire and injured his knee in a freak accident that forced him to withdraw from the bout. He was ultimately stripped of the interim belt he had won, and Nurmagomedov was crowned undisputed lightweight king in 2018.
“I mean, when it comes down to that and I get stripped of my title because I took a fall and had a bad accident, I should’ve sued,” Ferguson said. “But what I did was I felt good for my company. I wanted to be the man. I wanted to make sure everybody knew that I can f—-ing do this stuff without anybody else’s help. That’s a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, to kind of keep coming here and smiling and being used to be on a poster, so I have that high value.”
Ferguson mentioned that the promotion has already offered him a contract extension even though he still has fights remaining on his deal. Whether both sides are able to reach an agreement remains to be seen.
“The promoters here, they act like drug dealers sometimes,” Ferguson said. “They throw around a couple bucks like, ‘Come here, kid. Come here, kid. Come here, kid. Take this. Take this. Take this. Take this.’ If you don’t have the will to say no to that stupid sh—t, you’re going to get f—ed.”
According to Ferguson, plenty of other fighters in the promotion have grievances, but they aren’t speaking on it like he is.
“You guys are listening now,” Ferguson said. “That’s interesting. This is why I haven’t done any interviews. This is why I’ve kept my mouth shut for a long time. A lot of fighters have been keeping their mouth shut for a long time.
“You should ask the other fighters that have been f—-ing treated like s—t for a long time, too, cause I’m not the only one thinking or f—-ing saying it or seeing it. Maybe you should ask them, too.”
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