Earlier this week Tony Ferguson’s wife Cristina filed a restraining order against the UFC star due to domestic abuse that’s suggested to have been due to mental health issues, and now she’s issued a statement in which she seeks to give more insight into why she made that decision.
“Tony Ferguson is a good husband and good father to our son,” his wife stated. “The current legal proceedings are a part of a process to ensure that Tony will receive the help necessary to continue being the best possible, as well as to pursue his passion and career as a UFC champion fighter. All positive well wishes are sincerely appreciated and I hope our privacy will be respected.”
In her restraining order filings, Cristina documented disturbing details of her husband’s “mental break,” indicating that he had become increasingly delusional and paranoid over a period of weeks.
The former UFC interim lightweight champion reportedly believed that, “our son was Jesus Christ and [Tony] was the second Jesus Christ,” and had asked him if he was possessed.
He also believed he had a computer chip in his leg and that he claimed to be hearing voices in the walls of their family home, while one day he ran off with their son while they were at his wife’s parent’s house, pushing them aside as he went out the back door and vaulted a fence, leaving his car and mobile phone behind.
Other incidents include waking up his wife and accusing her of being a witch, driving his family inland to the Palm Desert in California 111 miles from their home due to his belief that a great flood was coming as the result of a lunar eclipse, and several incidents of breaking and tearing up furniture and other items in their home trying to find hidden cameras.
“[His] behavior is getting worse and more frightening,” Cristina wrote. “I am afraid that during one of [Tony’s] episodes [Tony] will kill me, our son and/or himself.”
Meanwhile, the troubled fighter has received words of encouragement from UFC superstar and lightweight rival Conor McGregor.
“Tony Ferguson is the type of guy that when all the chips are down, can pick them right back up again and come back stronger than ever!” McGregor wrote on Instagram. “Came back from a debilitating injury in record time to give us one of the fights of the year! Let’s go Tony!!”
