Fabricio Werdum’s Manager ‘Proud’ That Werdum Didn’t ‘Fold Tony Ferguson’s Ass’

Everything is all set for Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee to meet each other in the Octagon on Saturday night. Well, all but the weight as of the time of this article. However, last week it was Fabricio Werdum and Ferguson who were about to start scraping at a media lunch. Eventually they were separated after the situation reached a fever pitch, but the fallout that followed was much worse than the actual encounter. Recently, Werdum’s manager commented that he’s actually proud of his fighter’s restraint.

“In a way, honestly, I’m so proud of Fabricio Werdum not to fold [Tony Ferguson’s] ass and beat his ass. And the reason why he didn’t do that is probably because he didn’t want to lose the UFC main event [at UFC 216] and he respects Chris Costello. That’s what he told me. But on a normal day, Fabricio would have beat his ass.”

Here’s what happened between Tony Ferguson and Fabricio Werdum, and the aftermath that followed at today’s #UFC216 Media Lunch. pic.twitter.com/uxH3Oz9R16

— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) September 29, 2017

“If it was not for me, Khabib [Nurmagomedov] would have been whooping on Jose Aldo. But we wanted to fight Tony Ferguson, because he was the No. 1 guy or the No. 2 guy. Tony Ferguson, he owes me. He owes me for re-negotiating his deal, because if I said [Khabib] will fight Jose Aldo, he’d be making 40 and 40 [$40,000 to show, $40,000 to win] fighting on Fight Pass somewhere. But we held our ground to the UFC. He wants to be the crazy guy, you don’t see his eyes. The mysterious guy. Get the f-ck out of here. He’s a joke, he’s a clown.” — Ali Abdel-Aziz on The MMA Hour. 

Underneath all the Ferguson and Fabricio Werdum drama, it’s an interesting bit of information that Khabib Nurmagomedov was in talks to fight Jose Aldo, presumably at lightweight. Which sounds like a fight where both of them would be eyeing the illustrious fight with Conor McGregor. That also sounds like an incredible fight, especially with Jose Aldo’s takedown defense. This may be an eye into Aldo’s line of thinking, even though he’s currently looking for a featherweight match-up to be confirmed Ricardo Lamas.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/6/2017