Tony Ferguson: Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor playing it safe by fighting each other

Tony Ferguson thinks Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor took the easy route when they opted to face each other.

Ferguson (25-4 MMA, 15-2 UFC), who was initially offered Poirier for the co-main event of UFC 254, was left without a fight after Poirier couldn’t come to terms with the UFC.

Instead, the UFC offered Ferguson a fight against Michael Chandler, but Ferguson was unhappy with being offered a newcomer for, to him, an unsatisfactory amount of money.

As a result, Chandler was inserted as the reserve for the UFC 254 main event between lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje on Saturday, and Poirier was offered a rematch with McGregor on Jan. 23.

But Ferguson thinks neither Poirier (26-6 MMA, 18-5 UFC) nor McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) ever wanted to fight him, and that by fighting each other, they’re risking a lot less.

“It was a chess move,” Ferguson told MMA Junkie. “I called his bluff. You want to act like you want to fight? OK. Cool, dude. Let’s act like we want to fight. Half the time, I know these mother(expletives) don’t want to fight. I can hear it in their voice. I can see it in their face. Absolutely not, (Poirier didn’t want to fight). Conor doesn’t want to fight. They want to fight each other because it’s a safe fight and they’re on their way out.”