UFC 216 is nine days away, but two fighters looked ready to go during Thursday’s media lunch in Los Angeles.
UFC lightweight contender Tony Ferguson and former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum sat down to talk to the media in Los Angeles, and “El Cucuy” didn’t like when “Vai Cavalo” started to talk to a reporter while he was answering a question.
“Hold on, I’m talking, brother,” Ferguson told Werdum.
Werdum immediately fired back, saying"f*ck you” several times in Portuguese, and that ignited a back and forth in Spanish.
“When I’m talking you shut your mouth,” Ferguson replied.
“Shut your mouth, you f*cking f****t,” Werdum responded. "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.”
Both fighters had to be separated by UFC PR man Chris Costello, and Werdum left the media lunch.
“Have fun fighting on my undercard,” Ferguson said as the Brazilian was leaving.
Speaking with MMA Fighting after the incident, Werdum gave his side of the story.
"The guy told me to shut up, man,” the Brazilian said. "We’re both sitting there to do some media. Someone was asking him a question but I turned to talk to another reporter, speaking very low since we were close to each other, and he turned to me and said ‘shut your mouth’ in Spanish, ‘shut up because I’m speaking.’ I said ‘f*cking shut up? F*ck you! Don’t talk to me like that, not with me. Go talk like that to your division. You won’t talk to me like that.’ He told me to shut up out of nowhere, man.
"I know the guy. He’s not a friend, but I know the guy. He came in with all this f*cking negative energy, I went to shake his hands and he wasn’t pleasant. That’s okay, maybe he’s focused, he’s hungry, on a diet, but that’s his problem, so I stayed cool. When I went to talk to another reporter he tells me to shut up? What is this? Are you crazy? I didn’t beat him up there because something could happen and I could lose my fight. I’d break everything there. That’s why I didn’t do anything, especially in consideration to the UFC and Chris, who was coordinating everything there. F*ck, man. How can this guy come and tell me to shut up?”
Ferguson will headline the UFC 216 against Kevin Lee for the interim lightweight championship, while Werdum takes on Derrick Lewis.
Ferguson said afterward at the media lunch that he was upset that Werdum was “talking over” him and that’s how it started.
“I don’t give two f*cks,” Ferguson said. “I just came down from a mountain. I don’t want to be around people that bring me down. This is my shit, man. This is my f*cking time. Don’t talk over me. Because when you were in that spot, I gave you the time and the energy for it. I let you be. Don’t be rude. It’s just rude, man.”
Ferguson said that he doesn’t like Werdum’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz, who also manages Ferguson’s rival Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“I just don’t like the guy and I don’t like his manager,” Ferguson said. “I don’t like fake people. I can read right through people. Like I told you, I’m a good judge of character. Now that we’ve got that out of the way ... .
“I told everybody, I was like, ‘Don’t put him next to me. Don’t put me next to a guy that’s managed by him.’ I don’t like that shit.”