Tony Ferguson has had it with the UFC. Former interim lightweight champion aired many of his grievances last night during the UFC 274 press conference.
Ferguson is scheduled to square off against Michael Chandler. He has been steadily falling in rankings thanks to suffering three defeats in a row – to Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje and Beniel Dariush.
Ferguson went on to blast a reporter who thought referencing Mike Chandler’s ‘Dana White privilege’ was funny.
“So I mean, everybody’s looking at and they’re smiling. They’re laughing at it, but nobody’s saying s**t. So I’m a kid that’s up here with brown Dana Brown privilege. ”
“I guess whatever the f–k you want to call it? I don’t think it’s very funny anymore. Neither of you guys. I don’t think you guys should think that’s very funny. So I’m taking this weekend very f**king seriously. So I’ll kick this Dana White boy’s a**”
And Ferguson makes a fine point, somewhere along the lines the MMA media and fandom got used to ‘entertainment’ matchmaking as opposed to a valid ranking system. Ferguson is particularly salty considering how he’s been treated by the UFC.
When asked about his saltiness, Ferguson explained he has nothing personal against Chandler but that he’s fed up with the promotion.
“No, nothing personal against Chandler but I’m gonna be real. I’m tired of the retaliation tactics from the company.”
Ferguson went on to imply that he had been ‘benched’ by the UFC. UFC frequently ‘benches’ disobedient athletes in hopes that lack of a paycheck and an exclusive contract would soften their stance whether it be on a particular opponent or resigning with the promotion.
Ferguson last competed in May of 2021. While many fans assumed this was due to damage his knee had taken in Beniel Dariush duel this appears to be inaccurate.
Ferguson accused the promotion of not caring about the athletes with an anecdote dating back to his time on TUF.
|And they’ve been making me cut weight. They made me feel like I was inadequate going up to 170lbs again, they made me feel like I could not do that. They made me feel like I had to lose weight over and over and didn’t care about how I feel. I don’t care about how I was treating my body or I was treating my mind.”
Ferguson firmly believes UFC underpays the athletes and seemed particularly irked at how Dana White recently slammed boxers for getting a fair shake adding that he too made requests to be allowed to box.
Of course Ferguson is talking about the following clip of White.
“I think we’re underpaid. Personally. I’m gonna be real. I’m not gonna say too much. You know, I mean, Dana said something the other day and I put it on it’s on my phone. ”
“Talking about how boxers are overpaid. I asked Dana the box, said F**k no. I’m like, why I wanted to go play. You know, I’m gonna go play baseball and go do other pro sports. I’m an athlete. I grew up playing different pro sport or different sports at a very high level. ”
” I come from Grand Valley State University as a wrestler, I want to go do pro wrestling and I got Brock uncle Brock. That’s right there watching me. I want to go do all these couple of things. But then I have this guy right here acting like a fucking d**g dealer telling me I can’t go and do this”
“I want to go make more money for my family. ”
Later Ferguson addressed recent UFC sponsorships:
” I guess we’ll get in paid crypto, yes. Hmm. You know, they’re following everybody’s suit. They’re kind of waiting for everybody speak up the waiting for everything else like that. I’m waiting for insurance.”