Tag: Manny Pacquiao

Tony Ferguson Bashes UFC For Stripping Interim Title Due To ‘Freak Injury’

Shortly after UFC president Dana White broke the news that Tony Ferguson was out of his UFC 223 main event versus Khabib Nurmagomedov and would be replaced by Max Holloway last night, White also clarified that “El Cucuy” would lose his interim lightweight championship without fighting. Ferguson is not surprisingly unhappy with that call after […]

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Shortly after UFC president Dana White broke the news that Tony Ferguson was out of his UFC 223 main event versus Khabib Nurmagomedov and would be replaced by Max Holloway last night, White also clarified that “El Cucuy” would lose his interim lightweight championship without fighting.

Ferguson is not surprisingly unhappy with that call after suffering a torn LCL in a strange fall while doing some UFC-obligated media promotion last weekend.

Today (Mon., April 2, 2018) “El Cucuy” spoke up with his position on The MMA Hour, revealing that he was hurt by the UFC after finding out he would be stripped of his title while watching White on ESPN.

He doesn’t believe his title will go away, and he doesn’t think it should considering he hurt himself while doing UFC-mandated media obligations:

“I haven’t spoken with the UFC yet about what’s next,” Ferguson said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “So when I saw what was in the [ESPN] interview, it shocked me, man, it hurt me even more. It was something I couldn’t control with this injury. This all started snowballing this weekend, man. Of all weekends. The UFC hasn’t said anything to me about my title going away, and I don’t think it will go away.

“You shouldn’t strip a champion due to a freak injury that happened during a UFC-obligated media event,” Ferguson said.

The otherwise surging lightweight then detailed the timeline of events, claiming that he tripped over a large cable in a dark production room on the FOX Sports set as he went to say hello to a crew member. He worked out with it but felt more pain, and then his knee got progressively worse to the point he knew he wouldn’t be able to fight on Saturday night:

“I tweeted this happened on Friday, but it actually happened on Thursday when I was doing my media obligations for UFC. I was walking to say [hello] to a FOX crew member and I walked and I slipped on one of those big black thick cords on the production studio. It was dark, hard to see and I wasn’t wearing my shades, I actually had my prescription sunglasses on. That was when I was about to do my interview on ‘The Herd’ with Kristin.

“It was just a matter of, I slipped, man,” Ferguson said. “I heard it pop. Once we got back to the car after FOX interviewed us, I turned to my wife to tell her what happened, and she was concerned. I had a couple of my team members, and UFC staff with me. Afterwards I went home and did a pool workout and I felt tension and danger in my workout. I woke up on Friday with some pain and I still tried to push through it. You guys know me, I’m tough. I tried to train later that evening after taking a day of rest but my knee locked up.

“I woke up Saturday with even more pain, but I tried to push through it and train again,” Ferguson said. “But it locked up on me, my knee was giving out a few times, and slowly it dawned on me, I knew something was f*cked up and more serious.”

Admitting that he needed a medical opinion, Ferguson got an MRI and saw the bad news, and even though he wanted to have the doctors give him something to help fight through the pain, that ultimately just wasn’t an option. He does, however, want to explore his options and return in less than a year:

“I’m not a doctor,” Ferguson said. “But when I saw my MRI image, dude, I don’t know about you, but I was like it looked like a flag with my ligament, it was hanging on the side of the pole. I wanted them to shoot me with some sort of numbing shot or whatever they put, but they said it was likely it would blow up my whole entire knee.

“I have a ruptured LCL ligament, is what they told me.

“According to the doctor, it’s off the fibula bone. Athletes with LCL sprains can usually heal in a few weeks if they stay off it. I got one doc who says I need surgery, I got one who says I have other options so they are going to send me to a specialist to see what I need to do. So I am fighting to be back in less than a year.”

So with that recovery timeline now staring him down, Ferguson cited the situation last year where Robert Whittaker fought and defeated Yoel Romero for the interim belt while then-champ Michael Bisping was slated to fight Georges St-Pierre that November.

With that recent scenario a similar occurrence as his current one, he simply wants the UFC to do the right thing and allow him to keep his belt:

“I mean seriously, there is a precedent for having a fight for a “real” title and keeping an “interim” title intact,” Ferguson said. “They just did that with Robert Whittaker last year.

“I just hope they do the right thing.”

As the storied 155-pound division falls into even more utter chaos, that may not be the case for ‘El Cucuy.’

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Khabib Trolls Tony Ferguson With Hilarious Callout Video

As an outright deluge of news surrounding Tony Ferguson’s last-minute withdrawal from his huge UFC 223 main event against Khabib Nurmagomedov has hit the mixed martial arts (MMA) airwaves like a freight train today. The expected reactions from Ferguson, Khabib, and Ferguson’s short-notice replacement at this weekend’s pay-per-view, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway, all provided […]

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As an outright deluge of news surrounding Tony Ferguson’s last-minute withdrawal from his huge UFC 223 main event against Khabib Nurmagomedov has hit the mixed martial arts (MMA) airwaves like a freight train today.

The expected reactions from Ferguson, Khabib, and Ferguson’s short-notice replacement at this weekend’s pay-per-view, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway, all provided some initial insight as to how they felt about the marquee match-up falling by the wayside an unprecedented fourth time.

Yet while “The Eagle” posted some wishes for Ferguson to heal up while warning him not to talk so much trash, the undefeated Dagestani posted a not-so-nice callout video blasting his oft-scheduled for earlier today.

In a video made by Mojahed Fujailat on Instagram, an animated Khabib was seen calling Ferguson’s pullout “number one bulls**t” after “El Cucuy” kicked a steel pole before Dana White and Conor McGregor made their own appearances.

Check it out:

This is N.1 bullsh….. #ufc223

A post shared by Khabib Nurmagomedov (@khabib_nurmagomedov) on

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Conor McGregor Boasts Brutal Reaction To UFC 223 Fiasco

Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway, Ferguson’s short-notice replacement after “El Cucuy” pulled out of this weekend’s UFC 223 pay-per-view, all provided their reactions to the brutal news that Ferguson had been forced out with a knee injury, but perhaps no reaction was as awaited as that of lightweight champion Conor McGregor. […]

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Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway, Ferguson’s short-notice replacement after “El Cucuy” pulled out of this weekend’s UFC 223 pay-per-view, all provided their reactions to the brutal news that Ferguson had been forced out with a knee injury, but perhaps no reaction was as awaited as that of lightweight champion Conor McGregor.

The absent titleholder, who has been out of action since his 10th-round TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather last August and out of MMA since November 2016, finally offered his reaction on social media today, and as you could expect, it was of a brutal sort.

McGregor had nothing kind to say about Ferguson or Nurmagomedov, who have been booked to fight each other four times with each fight getting called off due to one injury or another to each fighter.

Check out what “The Notorious” had to say right here:

An interesting, but not so far off, reaction from the champ, who is rumored to be returning to the octagon sometime around this September, although Ferguson’s latest withdrawal may complicate that a bit.

McGregor reacted with a less-than-classy response, but let’s be honest – he didn’t rise to the position of MMA’s front man by being nice, especially to his top prospective opponents.

However, while he doesn’t pull out of fights, it’s been like pulling teeth for the UFC to get him to commit to a title defense of any kind.

Based on that, does McGregor have a leg to stand on here?

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Max Holloway Reveals Why He Couldn’t Turn Down Khabib Fight

It’s a rather strange day for the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) as fans accept the fact that Tony Ferguson will no longer face Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of Saturday’s (Sat., April 7, 2018) UFC 223 from Brooklyn, New York. In his place stepped featherweight champion Max Holloway to battle the bulldozing Dagestani force. […]

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It’s a rather strange day for the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) as fans accept the fact that Tony Ferguson will no longer face Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of Saturday’s (Sat., April 7, 2018) UFC 223 from Brooklyn, New York.

In his place stepped featherweight champion Max Holloway to battle the bulldozing Dagestani force.

It’s the biggest fight of “Blessed’s” currently surging MMA career, one where he has the opportunity to become only the fifth two-weight champ in UFC history, so not surprisingly, he revealed it was a bout he simply couldn’t turn down.

Speaking to Hawaiian news outlet KHON News (via MMA Fighting) as he got prepared to board his flight to New York, “Blessed” said there was no other route to take when he was offered the once-in-a-lifetime fight at the last minute:

“April Fools! Nah, I’m just joking.

“My manager called me. He said, ‘Tony’s hurt’ and ‘they want you and Khabib’. I was like…how do you turn down an opportunity like this? Opportunities like this come once in a lifetime and there was really only one guy was able to do it. I’m glad to be the second guy and I’m going to go out there and make history.”


But while the rising star is moving up to lightweight this weekend, he admitted he still has business to handle at 145 pounds – namely a potential blockbuster of a title fight with No. 1 contender Brian Ortega.

For now, however, his focus is justifiably on April 7 in Brooklyn:

“I’m here to fight man. I’m not a matchmaker. I’ve got business to handle at 145. But I said, when the UFC call, I’m only one call away. They called the right guy. I’m here, six days’ notice — April 7 is going to be a great night,” he said.

Finally, the titleholder gave a quick assessment of the undefeated Nurmagomedov’s peerless skills, but stopped short of giving too much praise by insisting he didn’t know why people were scared of ‘The Eagle’ before calling himself the best:

“Animal. You know what they say, ‘to beat the best you’ve got to be the best’, and the best is Blessed, baby. I can’t wait. This guy’s one of the most feared guys, I don’t know why. We’re all fighters, we all train. He’s human, I’m human and we get to go out there and see who is better.”

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Details Emerge Surrounding Tony Ferguson’s Mysterious UFC 223 Injury

By now, the mixed martial arts (MMA) world has had to accept the fact that Tony Ferguson’s withdrawal from his monstrous UFC 223 title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov was not an April Fool’s joke. News arrived earlier tonight that Ferguson had been replaced at this upcoming weekend’s pay-per-view event by featherweight champion Max Hollway after reportedly […]

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By now, the mixed martial arts (MMA) world has had to accept the fact that Tony Ferguson’s withdrawal from his monstrous UFC 223 title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov was not an April Fool’s joke.

News arrived earlier tonight that Ferguson had been replaced at this upcoming weekend’s pay-per-view event by featherweight champion Max Hollway after reportedly tearing his LCL off the bone during an accident while fulfilling his media obligations this Friday.

The situation sounded like a rarely-seen, strange set of circumstances leading to the fourth cancellation of this oft-booked but never materialized fight, and upon closer glance, the reality may be even stranger than you may think. Shortly after the news broke from ESPN’s Brett Okamoto that “El Cucuy” was out in an interview with Dana White, the journalist followed up with some details of what happened to Ferguson.

And apparently, it had nothing to do with fighting:

It’s an incredibly painful blow to Ferguson’s title chances, as the winner of Holloway vs. Khabib will most likely move on to a massive title unification bout with Conor McGregor – or at least, that’s what the UFC hopes.

The massive fight with Khabib appears to be one that just won’t happen without some sort of damning ailment, and it’s unlikely the UFC chooses to make it a fifth time.

The worst part is that this year’s biggest fight just fell apart to a freak occurrence when Ferguson spun on a dime to greet an acquaintance and tripped.

But, in a nutshell, that kind of sums up his rivalry with Khabib in a nutshell.

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Tony Ferguson Issues Statement On Devastating UFC 223 Knee Injury

As the MMA universe attempts to collect itself following the extremely disappointing news that Tony Ferguson had been forced out of his UFC 223 main event against Khabib Nurmagomedov due to a knee injury and replaced by featherweight champion Max Holloway, all of the involved parties have begun to weigh in. “The Eagle” wished his […]

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As the MMA universe attempts to collect itself following the extremely disappointing news that Tony Ferguson had been forced out of his UFC 223 main event against Khabib Nurmagomedov due to a knee injury and replaced by featherweight champion Max Holloway, all of the involved parties have begun to weigh in.

“The Eagle” wished his oft-scheduled opponent well but issued a warning not to talk so much, while Holloway posted his own wildlife-focused prediction for the short-notice fight.

Finally, Ferguson himself weighed in with his own statement on Twitter that focused on how devastated he was to be forced out of the previously thrice-scheduled bout again:

Check out what ‘El Cucuy’ had to say:

It’s an especially demolishing set of circumstances for Ferguson, who will, according to UFC president Dana White, lose the interim title he won by defeating Kevin Lee at UFC 216 last October.

Now, Holloway vs. Nurmagomedov will be for the so-called “official” lightweight title (who really knows what that even means anymore), and “El Cucuy” will be left out in the cold regarding the title picture if White’s prediction that the winner at UFC 223 would face current ‘champion’ (or something) Conor McGregor sometime later this year.

The situation is a mess unlike any we’ve ever seen in the UFC, and it was an April Fool’s joke that ultimately turned out to be true.

The silver lining of it is that we get to see an exciting match-up we never saw coming, but for Ferguson, an otherwise surging force who still maintains one of the most impressive win streaks in the storied lightweight division’s history, Easter Sunday was an especially harsh one.

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