Det har under den senaste tiden varit en hel del prat om en match mellan Tony Ferguson och Khabib Nurmagomedov, ett möte som såg ut att vara planerat inför UFC 209. Nu berättar organisationens VD Dana White varför matchen ej bokats in, och anledningen ska vara att Ferguson vill ha lika mycket betalt som Nurmagomedov.
Detta hade Dana att säga om det hela, via ”MMAJunkie”:
Yes, that’s true. We were trying to make that fight. Tony said he will not do that fight unless he makes the same exact money that Khabib makes. Khabib has a different deal. So, that ain’t happening. Count that one out.
He has a contract that he just signed not long ago. There’s a thing where these guys — I honor every contract, no matter what it is. I get into some (expletive) deals, too. You know what I mean? You’ve got a guy who is making tons of money, but he was a champion. That was the deal. I cut that deal and I signed it. I’ve got to live with my deal. When you sign a deal, you honor your deal.
Or, you at least get to a point where, most guys never make it to the end of a UFC contract. They get to within three fights and then we want to sit back down and start talking. You can say, I don’t want to sit down and talk yet, I’m going to ride this thing out and I’m going to become a free agent and test the market and see what I can bring in. Guys have done it, Dan Henderson did it, Rory MacDonald, Lorenz Larkin. Ride the thing out and become a free agent. But honor your deal. I have to honor my deals. Imagine if I didn’t honor a deal. You guys would be (expletive) all over me, right?
I dagsläget ser det ut som att ett möte mellan Tony och Khabib inte ens är i närheten av att bokas in, och om vi någonsin kommer få se de båda kämparna mötas inne i oktogonen återstår att se.
