Tony Ferguson Issues Harsh Message To ‘Scared’ Conor McGregor
If we were not in the money fights era of the UFC then the UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s next opponent would be obvious. However, we are and the normal scenario of the champion fighting the interim champion is not a lock of happening.
If that was the case, then we would see McGregor defend the title against Tony Ferguson, who extended his winning streak to 10 straight by capturing the interim title by scoring a victory over Kevin Lee at UFC 216 this past weekend at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Following the event, UFC President Dana White went on record by stating to the media reporters at the post-fight press conference that McGregor vs. Ferguson is “the fight that has to happen.”
However, that could easily change due to the fact that it involves McGregor. As seen over the past few years, McGregor, who is no doubt the biggest MMA star in the world right now, plays by a different set of rules than any UFC champion before him.
By now, it’s well known that rumors of a possible big-money trilogy fight between “The Notorious” and Nate Diaz have been going around as an option for McGregor’s next fight in the world famous Octagon.
Ferguson appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani to talk about the potential upcoming fight with the UFC lightweight champion.
“I believe so,” Ferguson said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I mean, if Dana says it, then we’re going to hold it to him. The UFC is pretty good with that, right? They don’t want to be called liars, and I don’t want to make them a liar, so this sh*t needs to happen.
“Look, Conor watches the fights. This dude didn’t say sh*t. He didn’t say sh*t on Twitter. He didn’t even comment saying ‘good fight.’ He said he was looking forward to watching this fight — he hasn’t said nothing. The boy is scared. He’s running. I told him, just set the belt down and walk away and nobody will get hurt. That’s all you’ve got to do: just set it down and you won’t get ass kicked, I swear, by another Mexican. This is a tough fight for him, man, and I don’t think that he’s got enough cornermen in the world to try to help him on this one.”
The interim champion is referring to comments McGregor made during the lead-up to UFC 216. McGregor noted that he was “very interested” to see how Ferguson vs. Lee played out. Thus, it excited him to go in and “correct that whole situation” by legitimizing the UFC lightweight title. Fast forward two days later, Ferguson was right in pointing out that McGregor hadn’t said anything on social media about performance at UFC 2016.
“I’ve given reasons before, as far as management telling him not to, or he’s just afraid or he’s not afraid, or if he’s just trying to get under my skin. It doesn’t matter,” Ferguson said. “I’ve wrestled them all, I’ve fought them all, and Conor is not different than any other man or human being in this world. The man wants to call himself a god, but he bleeds, so I can expose him as well. I guarantee you, there’s no big animosity there, but the callout was real and it was genuine.
“I really want to kick this dude’s ass because I believe that my skills are better. I guarantee you that I’d be a better champ and I would defend the belt. He defends the belt zero times. Zero times. He won it, he talked his way into this sh*t, and my management knows exactly where I stand with this, and I don’t stand for that kind of sh*t. I’m here right now putting numbers behind it, the same way that I made them take me into The Ultimate Fighter.”
Ferguson is confident that his management team will look out for his best interests. Keep in mind that McGregor and Ferguson are both led by the same management group, Paradigm Sports Management. Thus, this could lead to an uncomfortable position for the management group if Diaz ends up getting the fight over Ferguson.
“We’re all professional here, and that’s how I’m going to take it,” Ferguson said. “I’m going to be professional with it. I think I’ve grown with my management, they’ve grown with me. I signed with them before McGregor did, but it’s not like I came here first (to the title) — I came here second.
“Protect your pocket, I guess. But in the reality of everything, you have a conscious, and it’s going to be on theirs, and it’s not going to be on mine because I’ve been earning this the whole entire way. So it’s going to have to be on them. Like I said, I don’t want to try to look for different management. I love my guys, and I actually like them now, so in due time we’ll find out, man. Straight up. Because Dana says it needs to happen, it needs to happen.
“Conor needs his ass kicked and we need to unify that belt. Otherwise he needs to vacate, set it down, walk away, and never f*cking come back. Because if you go to 170, if you go to 185, or even if you drop to 145, I will f*cking follow you, Conor, and I will haunt your f*cking dreams, kid, and I will come after you. And one day, no matter whether we have the same management or not, you will f*cking see me again. And I will put some pain on you, bro.”
With all of that being said, Ferguson wants to make it perfectly clear that doesn’t think McGregor wants to fight him due to what he brings to the Octagon.
“I haven’t been told anything, but I can read people and I can tell that they don’t want this fight to happen,” Ferguson said. “They don’t. They want to protect their pocket. Just everybody, they just don’t want it to happen. They don’t want Conor to lose. This guy’s got a lot to lose. He’s got everything on the plate and all I have is everything to gain. And everybody’s going to do what they have to do, but at the end, everybody’s going to have a great fight. What they’re going to get is fireworks.”
“I think Conor’s full of sh*t, I don’t think he’s going to fight this year,” Ferguson said. “I think he was just saying it to keep people on their toes. But if he wants to go in 2017, I’m down. I’m ready to start training next week. We’ve got a 12-week training camp, we can get this sh*t rolling. The doctors already know that I’m not injured.
“I took a couple a shots (against Lee), but sometimes you’ve got to take one to give two, and with Conor, I don’t want to get hit. It’ll be a completely different training camp, and he’s not ready, man. He can have as many trainers in the world trying to help him with this one, but I’m a Pandora’s Box, man, and he doesn’t know how to open this sh*t.”
