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Former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson was offered $200,000 on top of whatever the UFC would pay him to face rising contender Islam Makhachev next at UFC 254 on October 24 in Abu Dhabi. The stunning offer was made a few days ago by that fighter’s manager Ali Abdelaziz via social media, and the Dominance Management CEO again took to Twitter on Monday to show Ferguson the two checks he had ready for the fighter.
Abdelaziz posted, “Champ you said I owe 200k here we go Fight @MAKHACHEVMMA and you get your money it’s your move…”.
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Timeline of $200,000 Offer
Abdelaziz’s offer is $100,000 for “show” and $100,000 to “win”.
That means Ferguson would receive one of the $100,000 checks just for accepting the fight and making it to the Octagon on fight night.
To get both checks, though, Ferguson would also have to defeat his opponent at UFC 254.
The whole thing started on Twitter when Abdelaziz posted that Ferguson was “squared” to fight Makhachev next.
“El Cucuy” replied by asking, “where’s my $200k and 20 push-ups?”.
That’s when Abdelaziz first made the wild $200,000 offer to Ferguson.
Now, Abdelaziz has revealed the two checks he wrote while waiting for Ferguson’s response.
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Both Ferguson and Makhachev Lost Their Opponents for UFC 254
Makhachev was originally supposed to face former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos next at UFC 254, but that fight had to be scrapped after “RDA” tested positive for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Ferguson thought he was on his way to facing Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier on the same card in the co-main event, but that fight fell off the map after Poirier asked for more money for the bout than the UFC was willing to pay.
Since Ferguson vs. Poirier was scrapped by the company, though, Poirier has somehow gone on to likely land a massive rematch against UFC superstar Conor McGregor later this year at UFC 255 or UFC 256.
All those things left Ferguson in a bit of a foul mood about where he sits today among the UFC’s deep pool of talented lightweights.
The 36-year-old American revealed last week that he wasn’t happy with the UFC offering him 3-time Bellator champ Michael Chandler next instead of Poirier (at least for the amount of money the company offered for the fight), so he probably isn’t very enthused about the prospect of facing Makhachev next either.
Any opponent yet? Where all the fighters at? #UFC254
After all, just a few months ago, Ferguson thought he was on his way to finally getting his hands on UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov next only to see all that go up in smoke against late replacement opponent Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 in May.
However, Abdelaziz’s massive offer of an extra $200,000 could help sway “El Cucuy” back into action.
That assumes, of course, that the checks presented by the famed MMA manager via social media are legit and that the offer itself doesn’t break some kind of UFC or combat sports commission rule.
Regardless, Ferguson has yet to respond to Abdelaziz’s $200,000 offer, and UFC 254 is less than two weeks away.
Ferguson accepting the offer doesn’t seem likely at this point, but it’s one of the most interesting challenges in recent UFC history.
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