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Had the chance to chat with Tony Ferguson earlier this week about his upcoming interim Lightweight Title fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 209 on March 4th. Transcripts and audio included, Tony joins at around 57:30.
58:11- Intro: "Super pumped for this fight, I'm stoked. I know there's, like, almost 40 days or something like that...I'm pumped, all this BS is too much talking man! What else can I say other than I want to punch this guy in the face in the most humane way possible and take him into deep waters all 5 rounds?...Excited man."
58:55- Talking about signing the fight with Khabib: "Pen to paper was when the UFC met my standards on a couple key notes. I love my company that I represent, I work really hard for them. It's all about the fight right now, I wanna see the fight and the fans wanna the fight, so I only thought it was fair, and I stuck to my guns, that was it. I signed on the line, I wanna fight this guy...this is the fight that everybody wants to see, and I knew (I wanted) the numbers to make sense...I put my title and my effort in here, and my punches don't like. I knock people out and I finish them with my d'arce. I aim to do that every fight."
59:56- Was he offended by Khabib offering him 200k: "Nah, I was a little more insulted that the UFC wouldn't match what Khabib did, at first. It was like, it was kind of insult to injury, but what it was was just an eye-opener to see that this is business... and you have to take care of business inside and outside of the cage, and that's what I'm doing, and this is what we result with, which is Pay-Per-View, baby! I've been working man, I've been working my butt off!...All this, the lights, camera, action, all the other stuff that comes with it, that's the best part about it. The fun part about it is the fight part, all the BS and everything else I don't care about, I have management for that, and that's what they handle."
1:04:27- On Khabib garnering attention: "Oh he's a TROLL on Twitter, he's got other people helping him write that stuff, man, because we were right there front-face and center, he didn't have much to say. I was right there, I didn't understand one word he was saying, and I was trying to learn his language just so I could curse at him out in his own language, straight up. There's no language barrier there, man. We know that there's gonna be a fight, and that's the best part about it. This is like a bushido code, man... I can't wait to show you guys some of my mitt sessions, I'm a scary dude. I can't wait to show you guys some of my slamming wrestling sessions, so that way he's like, oh shit, maybe I can do jiu-jitsu, and then I can show him some of my 10th Planet stuff and he's like, oh shit, let me do muy thai...on wait, nooo, I'm stuck. Hey, let me fake an injury. I can't wait for the date...watch this shit, set your DVRs."
1:06:05- On the interim title being at stake- "The belt, that's icing on the cake. I'm gonna whoop this dude's butt, man. I wanna prove that I'm the best challenger out there. I know for a fact that Khabib and I are gonna promote, and we're gonna do our thing and we're gonna give you guys exactly what you want, which is 5 full rounds of raw carnage, with an extra 4 minutes to hear what we gotta say in the corners. Man, literally, Im gonna be over there saying, "Man, I wanna break this guy's shin, or I wanna do this to his face." I'm gonna be so amped up looking at him on the side, making him know that my conditioning is better than him. Looking at him in they eyes, hopefully he's looking at me. I'm gonna look at all his coaches, too, and I'm gonna stare them all down, all of them at AKA, dude. I got a lot of respect for all these coaches, but the best thing is I can take them out one-by-one by working my ass off, doing what I do best, going in there a being loose and letting my jab fly. This dude's not gonna touch me."
1:07:04- Predicting: "You know what, it's gonna be an amazing fight, and I hope it doesn't go first round, that's bullshit. If I trained this whole entire time, I want it to go all five rounds. But I'm not saying it's gonna go all 5, I'm saying I'm gonna give a hell of a performance, it's gonna be amazing, and expect greatness from me. Aim to be inspired, yes?"
58:11- Intro: "Super pumped for this fight, I'm stoked. I know there's, like, almost 40 days or something like that...I'm pumped, all this BS is too much talking man! What else can I say other than I want to punch this guy in the face in the most humane way possible and take him into deep waters all 5 rounds?...Excited man."
58:55- Talking about signing the fight with Khabib: "Pen to paper was when the UFC met my standards on a couple key notes. I love my company that I represent, I work really hard for them. It's all about the fight right now, I wanna see the fight and the fans wanna the fight, so I only thought it was fair, and I stuck to my guns, that was it. I signed on the line, I wanna fight this guy...this is the fight that everybody wants to see, and I knew (I wanted) the numbers to make sense...I put my title and my effort in here, and my punches don't like. I knock people out and I finish them with my d'arce. I aim to do that every fight."
59:56- Was he offended by Khabib offering him 200k: "Nah, I was a little more insulted that the UFC wouldn't match what Khabib did, at first. It was like, it was kind of insult to injury, but what it was was just an eye-opener to see that this is business... and you have to take care of business inside and outside of the cage, and that's what I'm doing, and this is what we result with, which is Pay-Per-View, baby! I've been working man, I've been working my butt off!...All this, the lights, camera, action, all the other stuff that comes with it, that's the best part about it. The fun part about it is the fight part, all the BS and everything else I don't care about, I have management for that, and that's what they handle."
1:04:27- On Khabib garnering attention: "Oh he's a TROLL on Twitter, he's got other people helping him write that stuff, man, because we were right there front-face and center, he didn't have much to say. I was right there, I didn't understand one word he was saying, and I was trying to learn his language just so I could curse at him out in his own language, straight up. There's no language barrier there, man. We know that there's gonna be a fight, and that's the best part about it. This is like a bushido code, man... I can't wait to show you guys some of my mitt sessions, I'm a scary dude. I can't wait to show you guys some of my slamming wrestling sessions, so that way he's like, oh shit, maybe I can do jiu-jitsu, and then I can show him some of my 10th Planet stuff and he's like, oh shit, let me do muy thai...on wait, nooo, I'm stuck. Hey, let me fake an injury. I can't wait for the date...watch this shit, set your DVRs."
1:06:05- On the interim title being at stake- "The belt, that's icing on the cake. I'm gonna whoop this dude's butt, man. I wanna prove that I'm the best challenger out there. I know for a fact that Khabib and I are gonna promote, and we're gonna do our thing and we're gonna give you guys exactly what you want, which is 5 full rounds of raw carnage, with an extra 4 minutes to hear what we gotta say in the corners. Man, literally, Im gonna be over there saying, "Man, I wanna break this guy's shin, or I wanna do this to his face." I'm gonna be so amped up looking at him on the side, making him know that my conditioning is better than him. Looking at him in they eyes, hopefully he's looking at me. I'm gonna look at all his coaches, too, and I'm gonna stare them all down, all of them at AKA, dude. I got a lot of respect for all these coaches, but the best thing is I can take them out one-by-one by working my ass off, doing what I do best, going in there a being loose and letting my jab fly. This dude's not gonna touch me."
1:07:04- Predicting: "You know what, it's gonna be an amazing fight, and I hope it doesn't go first round, that's bullshit. If I trained this whole entire time, I want it to go all five rounds. But I'm not saying it's gonna go all 5, I'm saying I'm gonna give a hell of a performance, it's gonna be amazing, and expect greatness from me. Aim to be inspired, yes?"
