Ferguson Claims ‘Additional Clearance’ Isn’t Needed, White Disagrees

Ferguson says he was offered a fight, while White claims the UFC hasn’t even evaluated the troubled fighter yet.

After busting his ass and doing his own rehab on an injured knee, Tony Ferguson returned to action at UFC 229 and completely wrecked Anthony Pettis — an extra impressive feat considering Pettis went on to knock out Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in his next fight. But just as “El Cucuy” was getting back into the lightweight contender’s circle, disaster struck again.

Reports of police visits and restraining orders from his wife surfaced. She claimed he was tearing apart their house searching for hidden cameras, that he had a computer chip embedded under his skin. The man was clearly struggling with mental health issues, and fortunately it sounds like he’s gotten help since then. But just one month later, is he ready to compete again?

Tony certainly thinks so.

But UFC president Dana White wasn’t so sure following UFC 236.

“I don’t know if Tony’s ready to fight,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “I don’t know if that’s absolutely accurate. Because we haven’t had anybody evaluate him yet.”

That’s a statement that Ferguson seems to disagree with. He took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon to contradict White’s comments.

”I was offered a fight last week before UFC 236,” he wrote (de-Ferg’d for easier reading). “Guess who? That means I don’t need additional clearance.”

It’s unclear whether the UFC is actually offering Ferguson fights, or if this is just more fifth dimension social media promotion on the part of “El Cucuy,” who may be just trying to get his name back in the discussion. But regardless, we think there’s definitely going to be more additional clearances needed before Tony returns to the cage, and rightfully so.

We certainly hope he passes all the tests with flying colors when the time is right. It’s natural to want to rush things, but this isn’t most sports where a bad performance is just a blemish on the record. The UFC needs to make sure Ferguson is back in a good place, so he continue to be his weird and wonderful self in the fight game for years to come.