Tony Ferguson tells Nate Diaz to 'go try tennis,' but suggests management conflict of interest

Time, reflection and fast food have not dulled Tony Ferguson’s intensity after his canceled fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 209.

The UFC lightweight contender on Wednesday lashed out at Nate Diaz, champ Conor McGregor and Nurmagomedov, firing back one day after Diaz accused him of trying to do McGregor’s dirty work with a public callout.

“Point proven, Khabib, McGregor and Nate Diaz are a bunch of (expletive),” Ferguson told “Submission Radio.” “Well, let me say it this way: They’re a bunch of non-winners. I didn’t mean to say it that way. Let me try clean it up.”

Diaz (19-11 MMA,14-9 UFC) claimed Ferguson’s managers – who also rep McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) – are in cahoots with UFC brass to make him “cover” for the lightweight champ while he pursues a mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather (49-0 boxing). Diaz said he accepted a fight with Ferguson (22-3 MMA, 12-1 UFC) at UFC 213, only to reject it when the promotion failed to meet his financial demands.

Ferguson had called out Diaz after Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) was scratched from an interim title bout. But he said the request was his own idea.

“It had absolutely nothing to do with management, and it had nothing to do with the (expletive) money either,” Ferguson said. “I get paid either way, and I get paid good.”

“The Ultimate Fighter 13” winner suggested Diaz might be right about a conflict of interest, but not about whom it favors.

“Maybe you can ask my management … because I was there first, I have yet to receive a title, and the monetary gains from point A and point B are absolutely, completely different,” he said. “The leverage is way off.”

During a recent meeting with his management team, Ferguson said he made that point clear.

“Do I think my worth is a little bit more than what I’m valued? Yes,” he said. “Do I think my energy should be more dispersed to my side? Yes.”

Recently, that management team, Paradigm Sports Management, has said negotiations on a potential fight between Mayweather and McGregor are trending in the right direction. But Ferguson sees the whole thing as a diversion.

“They don’t want me to have the title, management or the UFC, don’t want to have me to have the title,” he said. “And I’ve worked my way up from the mail room … and I ain’t stopping. Because these dudes are soft. The money made them soft. These guys are at weed conventions or they’re going and doing these other things, but they forgot about the game and the hunger it possesses.

“When you see Conor step inside that ring again, it’s going to be all about show. Watch his ass get knocked out. He’s going to retire. He will never come back to the lightweight division. That dude will never show his face again. It will never happen. He’ll go and retire and avoid me like the Irish plague.”

A request for comment to Paradigm Management’s Audie Attar wasn’t immediately returned.

With McGregor on sabbatical while holding the lightweight title, Nurmagomedov on the shelf until later this year, and Diaz apparently unwilling to fight, no option appears to be off the table for Ferguson on his next move. He said he would fight as low as featherweight and mentioned a rematch with lightweight standout Edson Barboza (19-4 MMA, 13-4 UFC), one-half of a “Fight of the Night” meeting in 2015. He could also bulk up.

“I can go up to 170 and beat (welterweight champ Tyron Woodley) (17-3-1 MMA, 7-2-1 UFC),” Ferguson said. “That dude talks a lot of (expletive) and is to bougie for me. Straight up, that dude needs an ass-whipping to set himself straight. I sized him up, and 170 is just one skip and a scotch away.

“I’m realizing (the lightweight) division is full of bitches, and I can’t help that,” Ferguson said. “So I’m going to find work wherever I’ve go, and I’ve got a contract, so technically, they’ve got to fight my ass.”

But while he waits, he’s got no expletives to spare for Diaz and McGregor.

“These (expletive) want to fight one time and then go retire,” he said. “I get it. You’re a (expletive). It’s cool, you don’t like to fight. Alright. You’re in the wrong sport. Go try tennis. This is a man’s sport. I like to fight. Give me somebody that wants to have their ass beat. I thought this was the UFC, and we’re supposed to be the best and the toughest fighters in the world.

“You say, ‘Don’t be scared, homie.’ It’s all fake for them. And I understand it. You want to build your following. That’s cool. I say, you ain’t (expletive) without your homeboys, because one-on-one with me and Nate, or me and Khabib, or myself and McGregor, you know how the outcome’s going to go.”

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