UFC's Tony Ferguson Rips 'Fake' Conor McGregor: 'He's Not on the Radar'
May 7, 2020
Even though he has to worry about Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 on Saturday, Tony Ferguson is still finding time to engage in a war of words with Conor McGregor.
Appearing on ESPN's First Take Thursday, Ferguson came up with a unique analogy to call McGregor "fake" before explaining why he isn't thinking of fighting the Notorious:
"It's like chicken nuggets. You ever see chicken nuggets made? It's made of that fake, pink stuff, man. I mean, I love chicken nuggets, but I'm going to be real man, he's fake.
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"Obviously Conor's a good athlete, but he's not on the radar though, man. Everybody at SportsCenter and ESPN, they want to keep posting these videos and they want to make sure that Conor stays in the limelight, but I'm going to be real. The two athletes that are keeping this sport alive is myself and Justin Gaethje at UFC 249."
Ferguson and McGregor have been dueling for the past month since Ali Abdelaziz, Khabib Nurmagomedov's manager, told TMZ Sports that McGregor was afraid to fight El Cucuy.
"Why don't you even jump on a plane and come fight Tony Ferguson? I bet he understands that Tony Ferguson would beat his ass too," Abdelaziz said.
Last month, when Ferguson announced he made weight for UFC 249 even though it had been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, McGregor tweeted "congrats on an excellent victory."
Ferguson responded by telling ESPN (h/t Will Griffee of the Daily Mail) that McGregor was "probably drunk" when he made the comment.
Even though there's no word on a potential fight between Ferguson and McGregor in the future, things could change based on the result of UFC 249 on Saturday.
Ferguson is challenging Gaethje for the interim lightweight title in the pay-per-view main event. The winner will challenge Nurmagomedov for the undisputed championship at some point, according to UFC president Dana White.
McGregor returned to UFC in January with a first-round TKO victory over Donald Cerrone. It was his first fight since losing to Nurmagomedov in October 2018.