Ferguson unhappy over pay for canceled fight

Tony Ferguson was contracted to make $250,000 to show and $250,000 to win vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov for the Interim Lightweight Championship at UFC 209 on Saturday. Then The Eagle had issues during his weight cut, and was eventually pulled from the fight.

Michael Johnson stepped up, and Ferguson accepted, until he realized it was for less pay, at which point he declined. El Cucuy did weigh in, and customarily would, therefore, have received his show money. However, Ferguson was paid only a fraction of the show money – less that half, he reports. Ferguson is a company man, not a malcontent, but he is not happy.

It was like a slap to the face, said Ferguson to Steven Marrocco for MMAjunkie. 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, Dana, 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?’

Ferguson also addressed turning down the Johnson fight.

I’m not taking a pay cut, he Ferguson. Why would I want to take a pay cut? If you give me what I originally showed up for, f*** yeah, I’ll give you a badass fight. We’ll save this card.

[UFC president Dana White] 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.

Ferguson estimates he barely broke even, if that.

From the UFC perspective, Ferguson was paid six figures, approximately twice what he would have contractually received for a non-title fight. Further, a UFC official says Ferguson was informed of the compensation during a Friday meeting, and the figure was made known to his manager in writing. And on top of that, neither Ferguson’s UFC contract nor Nevada rules mandate compensation when a fight is canceled due to a botched weight cut.

Ferguson wants to fight in the next couple of months, ideally against Conor McGregor. If the fight is against Nurmagomedov, Ferguson wants guaranteed money if The Eagle misses weight again.