Fabricio Werdum releases statement regarding homophobic slurs toward Tony Ferguson at UFC lunch

Fabricio Werdum has addressed his repeated use of homophobic slurs in Spanish.

In a tweet sent out Friday, Werdum said he was “apologetic” if he offended anyone in the LGBT community by calling Tony Ferguson the Spanish word for “f****t” multiple times during a UFC media lunch Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles.

Werdum wrote that the word is “common” in the Spanish culture and that he did not mean to offend anyone. Werdum is Brazilian, but spent a good part of his childhood in Spain. He speaks both Portuguese and Spanish fluently — and used expletives in both languages against Ferguson on Thursday.

Werdum and Ferguson were both at a UFC lunch to promote their respective fights at UFC 216 on Oct. 7 in Las Vegas. The two were sitting together addressing media when they got into an argument. Ferguson was upset that Werdum talked over him while he was speaking to reporters and Werdum didn’t appreciate the way Ferguson addressed him, telling him to shut his mouth in Spanish.

“Shut your mouth, you f*cking f****t,” Werdum said in Spanish. "Don’t talk to me like that, that’s not how it works. You can talk like that to your division but with me you can’t talk like that f****t.”

Werdum and Ferguson both stood up and had to be separated by UFC public relations executive Chris Costello. The talk — and cursing — continued afterward, but without any physical incident.

“I just don’t punch him because I know he’s got a fight coming up and Chris is a very nice guy with me all the time,” Werdum said afterward during the lunch. “I don’t want to break everything. I almost, maybe just like one second, I snap his head — 100 percent. Like PRIDE rules.”

Werdum, 40, is a former UFC heavyweight champion. He fights Derrick Lewis at UFC 216.