Tony Ferguson and former UFC Heavyweight Champion Fabricio Werdum are both competing this coming October at UFC 216.
However, the two got into a heated exchange today during the UFC 216 media luncheon and after the exchange end, people probably thought they were fighting each other at the event.
“Hold on, I’m talking, brother,” Ferguson told Werdum as Werdum started talking as Ferguson was answering a question.
This lead to the former UFC Heavyweight Champion responding to the lightweight contender by using an expletive, which lead to Ferguson telling the Brazilian to shut his mouth.
That whole exchange lead to Werdum saying the following to Ferguson:
“Shut your mouth, you f-cking f-----t,” Werdum said. "Don’t talk to me like that, that’s not how it works. You can talk like that to your division but with me you can’t talk like that f-----t.”
Following that response from Werdum, the former UFC Heavyweight Champion would exit the luncheon as Ferguson fired back at him.
MMA Fighting caught up with Werdum after he left to get an explanation as to what was going on.
"The guy told me to shut up, man,” Werdum said. "We’re both sitting there to do some media. Someone was asking him a question but I turned to talk to another reporter, speaking very low since we were close to each other, and he turned to me and said ‘shut your mouth’ in Spanish, ‘shut up because I’m speaking.’ I said ‘f*cking shut up? F*ck you! Don’t talk to me like that, not with me. Go talk like that to your division. You won’t talk to me like that.’ He told me to shut up out of nowhere, man. I know the guy. He’s not a friend, but I know the guy. He came in with all this f*cking negative energy, I went to shake his hands and he wasn’t pleasant. That’s okay, maybe he’s focused, he’s hungry, on a diet, but that’s his problem, so I stayed cool. When I went to talk to another reporter he tells me to shut up? What is this? Are you crazy? I didn’t beat him up there because something could happen and I could lose my fight. I’d break everything there. That’s why I didn’t do anything, especially in consideration to the UFC and Chris, who was coordinating everything there. F*ck, man. How can this guy come and tell me to shut up?”
Ferguson was also approached after the exchange to get his side of the story:
“I don’t give two f-cks,” Ferguson said. “I just came down from a mountain. I don’t want to be around people that bring me down. This is my shit, man. This is my f-cking time. Don’t talk over me. Because when you were in that spot, I gave you the time and the energy for it. I let you be. Don’t be rude. It’s just rude, man.”
UFC 216 takes place on Saturday, October 7 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
