White: Ferguson wants equal pay to fight Nurmagomedov, not happening

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is out until May when he and longtime partner Dee Devlin are expecting their first child. So the UFC is looking for a interim title fight, between the top two contenders.

#1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov is 24-0. #2 contender Tony Ferguson’s record is if anything even more spectacular. ‘El Cucuy’ is on a nine-fight win streak, and won six performance bonuses in his last five fights. Each of his last three fights was the Fight of the Night.

However, on Wednesday UFC president Dana White said the fight is off, as Ferguson would not come to financial terms with the company.

We were trying to make that fight,” said White, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. “Tony said he will not do that fight unless he makes the same exact money that Khabib makes. Khabib has a different deal, so that ain’t happening. So count that one out.

There’s a thing where, these guys, I honor every contract no matter what it is. I get into some s****y deals too. You’ve got a guy who’s making tons of money, but he was a champion and that was the deal I cut. I cut that deal and I signed it, and I’ve got to live my with deal, you know what I mean? And if you ever see some of these older guys, whether it be Dan Henderson, whose numbers piss everybody off for some reason — all the fighters are pissed off about Dan Henderson.

Dan Henderson’s been in this sport for 100 f***ing years. And the guy has a couple fights left, so should I cut him and cut his contract in half? It might be the last deal the guy ever has, and it was the last deal he ever had. This is one of those businesses where you don’t look at Dan Henderson and go, ‘the guy was a f***ing pioneer, the guy was an animal, would fight anybody, anywhere, anytime. Good for him. It’s good to see Dan Henderson make some money.’ No, what I get from these guys is, ‘did you see what f***ing Dan Henderson made?’

This is the s*** that I get with these guys. I’m like, listen, if you can stick around as long as Dan Henderson has and fight the guys that Dan Henderson has, then maybe you’ll be making Dan Henderson money too. But when you sign a deal, you honor your deal.

Ride the thing out and become a free agent, but honor your dea. I have to honor all of my deals. Imagine if I didn’t honor a deal? You guys would be f***ing all over me, man. Right? ‘Oh my God, he didn’t honor that deal with this guy.’ And as far as these guys that they look and they start – I hate when guys start counting other people’s money.

Nobody feels happy for anybody. Everybody counts everybody else’s money and wants to rip up a deal after we make a deal. That’s not the way a deal works.

When asked if the Ferguson-Nurmagomedov fight was “off the table,” White replied that it was. However, White now wants to have Nurmagomedov fight UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo for the interim lightweight belt.

‘The Eagle’ said on his social network recently that he didn’t want an Aldo fight, as he sought a real battle, and only Tony can give it to me. However, White was still positive about Aldo vs. Nurmagomedov.

[Aldo] asked for Khabib, because Khabib’s looked at as the guy in that weight division. He wanted to fight him. Khabib’s dad didn’t want him to fight. Khabib’s dad wants him to rest. … I like that fight. Khabib and Jose Aldo would be fun. I’m in.