Tony Ferguson Rips Dana White Over Failed Dustin Poirier Negotiations For UFC 254: ‘We’re Not Friends’

Tony Ferguson Gives His Side Of The Story On What Happened During Failed Negotiations For A Dustin Poirier Fight

Tony Ferguson
Photo via Instagram @tonyfergusonxt

For a brief moment in time, it seemed that Tony Ferguson and Dustin Poirier were set to fight. Now El Cucuy gives his take on what happened between he and Dana White, and why the fight did not get signed.

The collective fanbase seemed excited at the prospect of Ferguson vs Poirier, simply due to the fact that it promised to be an incredibly exciting clash of styles. Unfortunately the idea of this bout soon fizzled out, as the UFC could not agree to financial terms with Dustin, desire pleas from Tony himself. Instead, both men opted to not compete at all, showing respect for each other, despite other opponents being offered to both of them.

Tony Ferguson Reveals What Happened In Negotiations

Tony Ferguson is the type of guy to do a lot of things, but he is not one to often speak with media. That is why when he was sitting down with Ariel Helwani recently, it only made sense that they would talk about what went down and how these negotiations fell apart. The way Tony tells it, he felt somewhat disrespected from the start, but he was still prepared to fight Dustin no matter what.

“I’m going to be real, I don’t know what their plans were before or after but I was already ready,” Ferguson explained. “I was already counting on it, planning around it. I’m not much of a planner, so I was just going ahead. But Dana wanted to speak for me. He wanted to go out there and be like ‘Yeah, Tony is going to take this fight.’ Like bro, we’re not friends. I never said we were friends. It’s just business. I’m there when you need me, and then obviously when you don’t… seriously man, I’m a contractor and I do my thing. I love you fam, and I love the UFC but I’m not just a piece of meat out there. It’s not about knowing your value or anything like that, I’m ready to step up to the plate. Dustin was there, Dustin in Abu Dhabi. The UFC kept delaying, telling us the fight was confirmed.”

From here, Tony Ferguson goes on to explain that the UFC offered him a fight with Michael Chandler, but for a new opponent he wanted to get paid more. As far as speaking up for Dustin, he was trying to hype the fight up and get things moving. However the UFC did not seem to respect the fact that he took fights when things were complicated, earlier on in the pandemic. This only got worse when Dana White tried to call him to work on these deals, but Tony did not pick up.

“Dana said we went quiet on him, alright well you called me right? And I forwarded you to f—ing voicemail. I don’t do Joe Rogan’s podcast, and I don’t pick up Dana’s phone calls. I might be the only f—er, I might just be that guy,” Ferguson explained. “Dana never said I didn’t want to fight. He said ‘They went silent on us,’ so his verbage is different…I told you, I forwarded him to voicemail… I’m going to be real, there was 72 hours where I would answer my phone calls, and be in communication. I’ve done so much for this company bro, I’m not asking for anything from them.”

It seems that there is some serious frustration on the side of Tony Ferguson, regarding the way these negotiations have planned out. Hopefully he will work things out with the UFC and he will fight again before the year is out.

Published on October 7, 2020 at 11:16 am
Stay up-to-date with the latest MMA news, rumors, and updates by following the RED Monster on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Also, don't forget to add MiddleEasy to your Google News feed Follow us on Google News for even more coverage.

Related

Leave a Comment