Tony Ferguson Reveals Conor McGregor Turned Down A Fight With Him

The interim (we think!) UFC lightweight champion Tony Ferguson today revealed that Conor McGregor turned down a fight with him before he was offered his upcoming UFC 223 showdown with Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Speaking today on the MMA Hour, Ferguson revealed that the UFC had told him he would be fighting for the undisputed UFC lightweight title on April 7, but only after they’d offered him a fight with the Irishman.

“As far as what they told me in the contract, that’s what they were telling me,” Ferguson confirmed. “They were saying, ‘Look, you’re fighting for the undisputed title.’ That was after they told me I was going to fight Conor McGregor and then just a whole bunch of s*** went down and I was like, you know what, I just got to deal with this. What happened was they offered me a fight with a fighter who didn’t want to fight.

“I don’t know if it was a contract issue or what it was, the dude doesn’t seem interested to defend his belt against the number one and defending interim lightweight champion. Now I’m the champion because he didn’t want to defend it. Defend or vacate so my campaign actually worked.”

Ferguson was later asked whether he was bothered by White refusing to give clarity on the title situation in the press conference. Suffice to say, he didn’t hold back.

“Yeah it bothers me, it bothers the s*** out of me. “I’m the f****** champ and we don’t know if we’re fighting for the real belt or not,” he said.

“What the f*** is that? Dana White is telling us one thing on one part of the curtain and on the other side he’s saying ‘no, Conor McGregor is still the champion.’ I love Dana, but I’m like ‘what the f*** dude? Am I not the champ or am I the champ? Do you want to hype me up or do you not want to hype me up for this fight?'”

It’s certainly going to be an interesting few months to see what Ferguson and Nurmagomedov will be fighting for at UFC 223.