Tony Ferguson and Dustin Poirier were expected to face each other at UFC 254 on October 24th. Talks broke down between the UFC and Poirier, however, leading company President Dana White to state that Poirier “doesn’t want to fight.” White would later say that they are working on another fight for Ferguson on the card but it now appears El Cucuy won’t be featured on UFC 254 at all.
“They went quiet on us,” White said to TSN regarding negotiations with Ferguson’s team. “We couldn’t get a fight done.”
“When I call you and you want to fight, fight,” White continued. “If you don’t, no problem. I’m not pushing anybody to fight. You don’t want to fight? We move on and we make other fights.”
There had been rumors that the UFC was attempting to sign Ferguson versus the newly signed former Bellator champion, Michael Chandler. The UFC announced yesterday, however, that Chandler will serve as a backup for the Justin Gaethje vs Khabib Nurmagomedov fight scheduled to headline the October 24th card.
Other bouts scheduled for UFC 254 include Alexander Volkov vs. Walt Harris, Robert Whittaker vs. Jared Cannonier, Islam Makhachev vs. Rafael dos Anjos, and Umar Nurmagomedov vs Sergey Morozov.
