John Kavanagh – the coach of Conor McGregor has advised Tony Ferguson to avoid fighting at UFC 249 unless he really needs the money.
‘El Cucuy’ was set to face Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight title at UFC 249. Unfortunately the Russian champion was forced to withdraw from the bout earlier this week due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent issues with travel.
As of right now Ferguson is still set to fight on April 18 against an opponent to be decided. Top contenders Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier are believed to be the front runners to replace Nurmagomedov on the card.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani of ESPN, Kavanagh said the only reason he would advise Ferguson to fight at UFC 249 would be for financial purposes.
“I think the answer to that would come down to finances a little bit,” Kavanagh said. “I would like to think that Tony doesn’t have to fight to feed himself for the next six months. You always want to think that about such a long-time professional like this, but I don’t know, I don’t know his financial situation. But I would say that if I was his friend or whatever, that would be the only reason I would encourage him to do it. If he was saying, ‘Hey bro I need to pay rent, I need to eat, maybe this fight is not ’til the end o the year,’ then I would say, ‘Yeah, of course, it’s your job at the end of the day. There are front line workers doing a lot more dangerous stuff than MMA fighters are doing. So hey, it’s your job, go ahead and do your job.”
“But I don’t see why (the UFC) doesn’t say, ‘Let’s take April, May, and June, that’s a three month period, and we’re just going to say say that didn’t happen.’ So April 18 becomes July 18. In a weird way, you press pause on the world for three months.” (Transcribed by BJPenn.com)
Do you think John Kavanagh is right? Should Tony Ferguson avoid fighting at UFC 249 unless he needs money?