Ferguson Issues Statement After Knee Injury Forces Him Off UFC 223

A devastated Ferguson took to Twitter to describe his feelings following news of his fight ruining injury.

April 1st is an annoying day as it is, but this year it featured some extra suck for MMA fans as we learned that Tony Ferguson injured his knee and is out of his UFC 223 fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov. For real, no jokesies. Word is Ferguson took a funny step and tore his LCL muscle clean off the bone, making it the fourth time since 2015 that the fight would fail to make it from the matchmaker’s card to the cage.

Now Tony has come out with his statement regarding his withdrawal.

”Words can’t explain how hurt, frustrated, angry, and in disbelief I am right now,” Ferguson wrote. “As I was completing my UFC pre-fight media obligations on Friday I had an accident on a studio set that tore a ligament in my knee. My doctor and the UFC doctor both said I can’t fight and one is saying I need surgery, so I will see a specialist to make the final determination on how I can heal up and get back in there to defend my belt ASAP.”

”I want to apologize to all the fans, the UFC, Khabib, my teammates, my coaches, my friends, and most importantly my family. Happy Easter to everyone out there, I beleive there is a silver lining in this nightmare of a reality, because this isn’t an April Fools. Good health and blessings to you all.”

As if losing this fight with Khabib wasn’t bad enough, it sounds like Ferguson hasn’t realized his interim lightweight belt will no longer be a thing after UFC 223, which is going ahead with Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Max Holloway for the full lightweight title.

“That goes away,” UFC president Dana White said of Ferguson’s interim title. “This fight is for the title. The winner of this fight will be the champion.”

And we thought the middleweight title picture looked like a mess….