Details Emerge Surrounding Tony Ferguson’s Mysterious UFC 223 Injury

By now, the mixed martial arts (MMA) world has had to accept the fact that Tony Ferguson’s withdrawal from his monstrous UFC 223 title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov was not an April Fool’s joke.

News arrived earlier tonight that Ferguson had been replaced at this upcoming weekend’s pay-per-view event by featherweight champion Max Hollway after reportedly tearing his LCL off the bone during an accident while fulfilling his media obligations this Friday.

The situation sounded like a rarely-seen, strange set of circumstances leading to the fourth cancellation of this oft-booked but never materialized fight, and upon closer glance, the reality may be even stranger than you would have thought. Shortly after the news broke from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that “El Cucuy” was out in an interview with Dana White, the journalist followed up with some details of what happened to Ferguson.

And apparently, it had nothing to do with fighting:

I'm told the injury to Tony Ferguson was literally caused by a trip. The freak accident of all freak accidents. He was walking, saw someone he wasn't expecting to see, veered sharply to say hello and tripped.

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) April 1, 2018

It’s an incredibly painful blow to Ferguson’s title chances, as the winner of Holloway vs. Khabib will most likely move on to a massive title unification bout with Conor McGregor – or at least, that’s what the UFC hopes.

The massive fight with Khabib appears to be one that just won’t happen without some sort of damning ailment, and it’s unlikely the UFC chooses to make it a fifth time.

The worst part is that this year’s biggest fight just fell apart to a freak occurrence when Ferguson spun on a dime to greet an acquaintance and tripped.

But, in a nutshell, that kind of sums up his rivalry with Khabib.