PHOENIX – It took some self-convincing for Tony Ferguson to get back to a point where he was ready to fight again. Now that he’s here, he’s speaking his mind.
Ferguson held court Wednesday for an extended period – the first time in a long time – during UFC 274 media day. His session lasted nearly 25 minutes, much longer than the rest of the fighers who took the podium. A lot of the classic Ferguson quirks were present. “El Cucuy” led off with a smile and “Sup, f*ckers?” before he flipped the chair around, straddled it and looked out into the media pool through his sunglasses.
But something was a tad different, or perhaps more pronounced than before: his frustration.
In many of his answers, Ferguson vented about fighter mistreatment from the company, and especially UFC president Dana White, even if the question wasn’t about that topic. This airing of grievances apparently wasn’t in full either. Ferguson said he plans to say more after the fight but gave everyone a sneak peek.
What peeved Ferguson initially Wednesday was a reference to “Dana White privilege,” a term he coined to describe Saturday’s opponent, Michael Chandler, at a press conference ahead of his last fight last year. Everyone laughed at the time, even White himself. It has since been added to the MMA lexicon, but no one ever asked Ferguson if it was meant to be taken as a joke.
“I don’t think it’s very funny,” Ferguson said. “Everybody is looking at it. They’re smiling and laughing, but nobody is saying sh*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*cking seriously. I’ll kick this Dana White boy’s ass.”
Ferguson’s promblem isn’t with Chandler, he clarified. It’s with the company and its “retaliation tactics” that bother him. That’s why he’s remained off the grid for nearly 12 months.
“This is why I haven’t done any interviews,” Ferguson said. “This is why I’ve kept my mouth shut for a long time. A lot of fighters have been keeping their mouths shut for a long time. You should ask some of the other fighters who have been f*cking treated like sh*t for a long time, too. I’m not the only one thinking it or f*cking saying it or seeing it. So maybe you should ask them, too?”
"Dana White privilege" is no laughing matter to Tony Ferguson. 😤#UFC274 | Full video: https://t.co/Tsc7c9gZZ8 pic.twitter.com/BbIDp1k5W8
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) May 4, 2022
‘Questions to be raised’ about UFC’s treatment of fighters
Ferguson walked a line of not wanting to say too much while also giving vague hints and accounts of perceived mistreatment. Fighter pay he brought up multiple times. He revealed that, like fellow UFC notables Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman, he recently asked White for a chance to box professionally and was shut down.
“I think we’re underpaid, personally, to be real,” Ferguson said. “… I asked Dana to box. He said, ‘F*ck 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 playing different sports at a high level. … I want to go do all these couple things but then I have this guy right here acting like a f*cking drug dealer telling me I can’t go and do this sh*t. I want to go make more money for my family.
“… You make your money by showing up, winning and having good performances. Right now, we’re getting paid crypto, I guess, huh? They’re following everybody’s suit. They’re waiting for everybody to speak up. They’re waiting for everything else like that.”
Ferguson also mentioned vented about his 2018 knee injury suffered in a freak accident on the FOX lot in Los Angeles. When Ferguson tripped on a wire, the injury he sustained forced him out of his scheduled title fight vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov. He was stripped of his interim belt shortly thereafter.
“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*cking 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.”
When he started to feel under-appreciated, Ferguson said he built his brand on social media in an effort to make up for it. He was successful, with hundreds of thousands of followers rolling in. Ferguson said he more recently has tuned down the efforts, however, as he doesn’t think it should solely fall on him to build himself.
Additionally, Ferguson mentioned how he severely injured his leg in his most recent fight, which knocked him out of action for some time. It peeves him that the UFC didn’t give him special treatment given the circumstances for his travel home.
“Chris Weidman got a personal flight back,” Fergusons said. “I couldn’t f*cking walk. I couldn’t do the same sh*t. So I’m not sure if the corporate is talking about that. There (are) some questions to be raised on how they treat their athletes, that’s for sure.”
‘I’m a straight shooter now’
Despite all of these issues, Ferguson said he wants to remain with the company. It also sounds like the UFC would like to keep him around regardless of Saturday’s outcome. Although Ferguson said he still has fights left on his current deal, he added that the UFC recently offered him an extension anyway. He hopes things can smooth over but also said he doesn’t want to take small prizes as a substitute for long-term value.
“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*cked. I’ve seen Terrance McKinney in the same f*cking way and a couple other people. Even for me to go out there, I had to say no a couple times. I had to f*cking ignore Dana’s call once during the pandemic. I’m chilling, man. I’m skateboarding. You know why? Because you didn’t answer my phone call.”
When he steps into the cage Saturday opposite Chandler at UFC 274, it will be nearly a year since he last competed. In the time between his May 2021 loss to Beneil Dariush and now, Ferguson has remained largely off-the-grid – and come to learn from his pre-fight news conference, it was not an accident.
Fixes have been made, though, in his estimation. His perception of the business has changed, but so have views of his own necessary development as a fighter. He thinks he’s ready to show the doubters that he’s not done yet and snap a three-fight skid against former the Bellator champion.
“I have space on my shelf,” Ferguson said. “I looked at it a couple days. I walked past it and looked at it again. ‘Man, it’s empty there. I need something to put there.’ I was like, ‘It’d look kind of nice to put a belt right there.’ I started getting kind of hungry again, kind of figuring it out, putting things together like a puzzle. I started, and it clicked. I’m a straight shooter now, man. Everything is cool.”
UFC 274 takes place Saturday at Footprint Center with the main card on ESPN+ pay-per-view after prelims on ESPN/ESPN+.
