Tony Ferguson claims he was fine with the idea of Nate Diaz beating him at UFC 279: “Take your f*****g victory, get the f**k outta here”

By Cole Shelton - July 27, 2023

Tony Ferguson says he was fine losing to Nate Diaz as it allowed the Stockton native to leave the UFC on a win.

Nate Diaz, Tony Ferguson

Ferguson was supposed to take on Li Jingliang at UFC 279 at welterweight, but after Khamzat Chimaev badly missed weight, ‘El Cucuy’ ended up fighting Nate Diaz at welterweight on a day’s notice. However, Ferguson says that camp was not a good one as he was eating slushies on fight week and didn’t care too much about his fight against Diaz.

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“I asked for the fight, I asked for a fight. I want to get back into it, but I wanna get back into it wholeheartedly,” Tony Ferguson said at UFC 291 media day. “Last couple of fights, I haven’t really been in it. I’m gonna be real with you guys, trying to impress you f*****s is not my forte. I’m going to be real with it, I’m not trying to do that. When we were preparing for Li, I was eating slushies that week.

‘I’ve helped out the UFC plenty of times’

“When we had Nate, Nate was hard to take f*****g serious. It was almost like, I didn’t wanna lose, but I’m gonna be real, like, here, take your f*****g victory, get the f**k outta here, and go make some f*****g money. Here, let me slap you on your ass and you can go over there, dude, because you obviously don’t wanna f*****g be here. I’ve helped out the UFC plenty of times,” Ferguson continued.

With Tony Ferguson saying he wasn’t taking his fight camp seriously, he ended up losing by submission to Nate Diaz. The loss was his fifth defeat in a row.

Ferguson, meanwhile, is now set to fight Bobby Green at UFC 291 as he looks to get back into the win column. Heading into the fight, Ferguson has said he feels like he’s in his prime and ready to go on a title run.


Topics:

Nate Diaz Tony Ferguson UFC