Ferguson acted like he didn’t want to say much while also giving vague clues and accounts of fighter mistreatment.He brought up Fighter pay multiple times. He said that, like other UFC note worthy fighters, Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usman, he asked White for a chance to box professionally and was swiftly denied.
“I think we’re underpaid, personally, to be real,” Ferguson said. “… I asked Dana to box. He said, ‘F*ck no.’ I’m like, ‘Why? I want to go play baseball. I want to go do other pro sports. I’m an athlete. I grew up playing different sports at a high level. … I want to go do all these couple things but then I have this guy right here acting like a f*cking drug dealer telling me I can’t go and do this sh*t. I want to go make more money for my family.
“… You make your money by showing up, winning and having good performances. Right now, we’re getting paid crypto, I guess, huh? They’re following everybody’s suit. They’re waiting for everybody to speak up. They’re waiting for everything else like that.”
“I mean, when it comes down to that and I get stripped of my title because I took a fall and had a bad accident, I should’ve sued,” Ferguson said. “But what I did was I felt good for my company. I wanted to be the man. I wanted to make sure everybody knew that I can f*cking do this stuff without anybody else’s help. That’s a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, to kind of keep coming here and smiling and being used to be on a poster, so I have that high value.”
UFC 274 takes place Saturday at Footprint Center.
