Video: Fabricio Werdum trades words with Tony Ferguson at UFC 216 media luncheon

Tony Ferguson and Fabricio Werdum got into it after the former heavyweight champion started talking over Ferguson during a UFC media lunch.

Not every feud between fighters can be reasonably settled in the cage. That’s definitely the case with Fabricio Werdum’s latest beef. No, not his ongoing feud with former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. This time, the former heavyweight champ has picked a fight with UFC lightweight interim title contender Tony Ferguson.

Ferguson and Werdum were seated next to one another during a recent UFC 216 media luncheon event, when Werdum began talking over Ferguson while both men were speaking to the press. Ferguson asked Werdum to give him a minute to finish talking and, well, things went downhill pretty quickly from there.

After that their back-and-forth jumped between Spanish, Portuguese, and English, with Werdum calling Ferguson a “maricon” or “f-—t” repeatedly. MMA Fighting translated some of the exchange:

“When I’m talking you shut your mouth,” Ferguson replied.

“Shut your mouth you fucking f****t,” Werdum responded. "Don’t talk to me like that, that’s not how it works. You can talk like that to your division but with me you can’t talk like that f****t.”

Fighting also spoke to Werdum shortly after the argument, where he gave his own account of Ferguson’s demeanor leading up to the exchange.

"I know the guy. He’s not a friend, but I know the guy. He came in with all this f*cking negative energy, I went to shake his hands and he wasn’t pleasant. That’s okay, maybe he’s focused, he’s hungry, on a diet, but that’s his problem, so I stayed cool. When I went to talk to another reporter he tells me to shut up? What is this? Are you crazy? I didn’t beat him up there because something could happen and I could lose my fight, I’d break everything there. That’s why I didn’t do anything, especially in consideration to the UFC and Chris, who was coordinating everything there. F*ck, man. How can this guy come and tell me to shut up?”

UFC 216 goes down on October 7th in Las Vegas, NV, on pay-per-view. The event is expected to be headlined by the lightweight interim title fight between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee. Fabricio Werdum is set to fight Derrick Lewis further down the PPV main card.