Ferguson: I've received 'less than half' my show money for ill-fated title bout
Tony Ferguson is fed up with being a company man.
When Khabib Nurmagomedov's weight-cutting issues kept him from making their interim lightweight title bout at UFC 209, Ferguson was asked to take a hefty pay cut to remain on the card in a non-title fight, effectively putting the kibosh on his first shot at UFC gold. "El Cucuy" refused, and after UFC president Dana White told the media he'd been compensated, Ferguson was baffled to learn he'd been paid "less than half" of the $250,000 he'd been slated to make.
"It was like a slap to the face," Ferguson told MMAjunkie's Steven Marrocco on Tuesday. "My training expenses were a lot larger than any other fight I’ve ever done because this was supposed to be the biggest fight of my career. So now I’m sitting here, and it’s like, what is my worth to the UFC? Like, do I not fight enough? Do I not bleed enough for them? It’s going through my head right now, because I didn’t lose.
"I did everything in my power that I could to show up on that scale, and that’s what I thought we were going to do. That’s why you call it show money. And to every fan that’s out there in the world, (UFC President) Dana (White), he said they cut me out a check, and I didn’t get a check, and then this morning I got my wire, and I’m looking at it and I’m like, 'What the frick, man?' I’m like, 'Seriously?'"
While Nurmagomedov failed to tip the scales at the previous Friday's weigh-in, Ferguson held up his end of the bargain, shedding the last few pounds that same morning before coming in below the lightweight limit. The UFC has been known to pay fighters their show money under such circumstances, and while several outlets assumed Ferguson had been paid his full $250,000 based on White's comments, the UFC boss never put a number on it.
Not only did Ferguson mount a division-best nine-fight win streak to get his long-awaited title shot, he had to temporarily hold up negotiations for the bout to secure a fairer payday, to the point Nurmagomedov offered him $200,000 out of pocket to bring it to fruition. After everything it took him to make it to the biggest fight of his career, the 33-year-old was predictably beside himself when the company asked him to take one for the team.
"I’m not taking a pay cut. Why would I want to take a pay cut? If you give me what I originally showed up for, (expletive) yeah, I’ll give you a badass fight. We’ll save this card."
Further disgruntling the contender was White alleging his purse had already been budgeted, and that the promotion would have entered the red had he been kept on the bill. Ferguson, for one, wasn't buying it, and took a stab at how the rest of his scratch might have been allocated.
"He said, 'We budget for these fights.' Those are his exact words. So then you had it, but you don’t want to fork it over. That’s like, all right … How am I supposed to like the company I work for if I’m short-changing me? He was telling me he was taking a loss from this, and I’ll bet you he’s somewhere out on his boat, or doing something on his jet, laying $250,000 down on a craps table."