Tyron Woodley Vs Stephen Thompson II may be the headliner for UFC 209, but on yesterday’s media conference call it was the co-main event pairing of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson who stole the show with their heated war of words.
In fact, at one point Ferguson openly questioned while he and Nurmagomedov weren’t getting top billing on the pay-per-view line-up.
“You guys are going to see f*cking fireworks,” Ferguson promised. “This should be the main event. I don’t know why Stephen Thompson and T-Wood (Tyron Woodley) are the main event. This is the sh*t everybody is talking about.”
That was about the only thing Nurmagomedov agreed with Ferguson on, calling their fight, “the greatest match-up in lightweight history.”
Aside from that, the two see eye-to-eye on absolutely nothing.
During the call Nurmagomedov repeatedly stated that it was purely down to him that Ferguson was even getting a chance to fight for the interim title.
“Everybody knows I make this fight. And Tony knows I make this fight, because he tried running away,” Nurmagomedov stated at one point, adding later, “You understand who is who and what happens after this fight. I bring you here. Nobody bring you. I bring you.”
“Nobody brought (me here),” Ferguson fired back. “So all the nine victories that I have, nine victories that I have in a row, you’re going to be like: ‘I did that. Tony, I did that. I did all the work.’ You didn’t do sh*t. F*ck you, Khabib. You didn’t do nothing, dude. You’re a bully. I’m a f*cking matador. I’m going to finish your ass. You ain’t got sh*t against me.”
Nurmagomedov also repeatedly questioned why Ferguson had started asking for more money when the UFC first tried to book the fight, yet had turned down the Russian star’s own offer to directly pay him an extra $200,000 if he accepted the match-up.
“When you UFC asks me, ‘Khabib, you have to fight with Tony,’ I said okay, let’s go,” Nurmagomedov stated. “This is what I want, because you have nine win streak, I have eight win streak, we have to fight. And after UFC asked me, you said, ‘please, please, give me money, give me this.’ You tried to run.”
“Dude, it’s what I’ve earned,” Ferguson responded. “You can talk as much sh*t. Like I said, your management speaks for you. And you know what? I don’t give two f*cks. Try to hype it up. You were trying to f*cking pay me. I said, you know what? I spit on your money. Your money is f*cking worthless to me. I can give two f*cks. I want the UFC’s money because I earned it.”
“You know why you ask for too much money?” Nurmagomedov fired back. “Because you know this is your last fight. This is your last fight in UFC. That’s why. We’ll see March 4th. I’m going to break your face. I’m going to break your career.”
The two rivals had a whole lot more to say to each other, and you can hear the media call in full below.
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