Tony Ferguson, a lightweight, and Werdum, a heavyweight, had to be separated at Thursday’s luncheon in Los Angeles, where they were charged with fielding questions to promote next week’s UFC 216 in Las Vegas.
Ferguson was talking about what fighting for an interim version of the lightweight belt meant to him. Apparently, his answer wasn’t playing well with Werdum, who jumped in and started talking over Ferguson.
The two began exchanging words, stood and continued trading barbs until UFC public relations staff jumped between them to make sure it didn’t go any further than a war of words.
One of the Spanish words that Werdum used, maricon, is equivalent to the English word faggot, which is a slur often used in reference to homosexuals.
After receiving some backlash for his use of the term, Werdum issued an apology on Friday.
This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com
