Tony Ferguson goes off on Nate Diaz: 'I might as well Stockton slap the (expletive) out of you'

UFC lightweight Tony Ferguson is firing back after an attempt to fight Nate Diaz at UFC 213 fizzled out.

“You’ve got a man right here that’s calling you out, and you’re not signing on the dotted line? You’re a clown, dude. You’re fake,” Ferguson said on “The MMA Hour.”

Earlier this month, Diaz revealed that he’d essentially priced himself out of a fight with Ferguson at the July 8 pay-per-view after the UFC balked at his financial demands.

Diaz (19-11 MMA,14-9 UFC) was angry at a previous call-out from Ferguson (22-3 MMA, 12-1 UFC), whose interim title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) at UFC 209 was scratched when a botched weight-cut forced Nurmagomedov out. Diaz implied Ferguson’s beef was phony, and he was there to do the “dirty work” of his management, who also represents UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC).

Rather than let others dictate the circumstances, Diaz upped his pricetag and shifted gears to competing in triathlons when the UFC didn’t respond.

“Little (expletive),” Ferguson responded when asked about the situation. “I don’t know what his problem is, dude. Like, I understand that you want to say like, ‘McGregor, I’m not going to do your dirty work.’ Dude, I don’t want to go into name-calling, I don’t have to do that, but I’m talking about if you’re a fighter, and you’re in this organization, and you say that you’d rather go and ride a bicycle, you’ve got better things to do, that’s cute. That’s real cute.

“I might as well Stockton slap the (expletive) out of you. Really? I’m from the 808, man. I don’t have to talk about where I’m from, but I’m tough. I’m a hell of a lot tougher than that dude, because money never made me soft. And (expletive), even if it made me soft, I wouldn’t forget where I came from.”

Ferguson would hope Diaz sees the green that could come from a fight. But he’s convinced his would-be opponent is thinking more about another type.

“He smokes a lot of good weed, I guess, because he’s got a lot of time on his hands just to do that,” Ferguson said. “The dude’s delusional, man. Obviously I’m not in cahoots with McGregor. If you think that I am, then you’re (expletive) high as (expletive). Straight up, he’s smoking that wacky tobacky, because I’m not. I don’t like (McGregor). I don’t like how, obviously, things are playing with my management, but you know what? I’m professional, so this is where we’re at.

“Nobody’s telling me to fight this dude (Diaz). What I’m looking at is, look, this guy was the last person that fought the guy that I want to get to. Man, he actually beat him. I’m like, look, anybody else that’s on the roster right now, I (expletive) murked. They were like butter through my elbows. I worked right through them. I cut them up, I sliced them up, and I served them on a platter back to Dana with a bonus coming my way.”

Ferguson has thrown out several options for his next move, including a jump to welterweight and taking kickboxing matches, among others. A fight with Diaz obviously wouldn’t be for a title, but it would give him the opportunity to knock off one of the lightweight division’s biggest stars. That would be worth its weight in gold, so he’s going to keep calling out Diaz.

“Let’s make that money, dude,” Ferguson said. “You want to go? I’m a hell of a lot better than you. You try to Stockton slap me — whatever you (expletive) call it — dude, I will hit you with my jab so hard you’ll (expletive) knock your teeth out.

“I mean, there’s not too much I have to say to pick him apart,” Ferguson added. “The dude is a good, easy target, but I think that obviously if he says how interested he is in training for a good fight, let’s go. If he wants to put all that effort towards a triathlon or something like that, put that effort and everything else towards something that you’re actually in, that you’re ranked in. Put in that effort. Act interested. If not, get the (expletive) out.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.