Tony Ferguson found out about UFC 249 postponement in the middle of an interview
UFC 249 was finally postponed on Thursday after executives at Disney and ESPN asked UFC president Dana White to “stand down” in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. White revealed the news on ESPN, and it doesn’t seem like he told any fighters who were scheduled to appear on the card beforehand.
At least not Tony Ferguson, who found out about the postponement while he was in the middle of an interview.
Ferguson, 36, had been scheduled to take on Justin Gaethje (the replacement for Khabib Nurmagomedov) at UFC 249, and was chatting about his preparation with Brian Martin of the Orange County Register when the news about UFC 249 broke. Martin told Ferguson about the postponement, and got his reaction in real time.
When told of the cancellation of his April 18 fight, Ferguson, 36, was understandably shocked. The first words out of his mouth was an expletive, followed by, “Oh wow.”
After nine seconds of silence and another expletive, the Costa Mesa lightweight composed himself: “Ohhhhh well. I’m still gonna train.”
That’s not a surprising answer from Ferguson, who has already dealt with a lot of changes and uncertainty surrounding his fight at UFC 249. He was originally supposed to fight Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight title, but Nurmagomedov withdrew because he was in his native Dagestan, Russia, and unable to leave due to coronavirus safety regulations. Gaethje was the announced replacement, and the two would have fought for an interim title.
Ferguson seems content to roll with the punches, so to speak, and is trying to keep everything in perspective.
“Ummmm … you know what? I’m sure it’s for a good reason. Let’s be real. I gotta keep the faith,” Ferguson said. “I gotta keep this … [expletive] … keep this small circle close, bro, and just keep focusing on what we can control, which is our heart rate and our breathing.”
Ferguson told Martin that he is going to contact White to thank him for trying to keep UFC 249 going, and wants to suggest that he and Gaethje play each other in a video game.
More from Yahoo Sports:
