Tony Ferguson: Conor McGregor is Fake Like a Chicken Nugget

Tony Ferguson is set to face off against Justin Gaethje at UFC 249 on Saturday evening. On Thursday, he hopped on First Take to do what fighters are inclined to do ahead of a match-- talk a whole bunch of trash about everybody they can think of.

A regularly entertaining ritual, Ferguson didn't disappoint. After spending some time disparaging Khabib Nurmagomedov, Stephen A. Smith asked him for his thoughts on the outsized personality that is Conor McGregor. Ferguson called McGregor fake and compared him to a processed chicken nugget. A wonderful analogy.

"It's like chicken nuggets. You ever see chicken nuggets made? It's made of that fake pink stuff, man. I love chicken nuggets, but I'm gonna be real, man, he's fake," said Ferguson. "He was an athlete when I first met him. But you hang around other people and you don't know how to spend your money, you're a knucklehead out there, that's not somebody I want to compete against. We were managed by the exact same team. I had to get out of that bad relationship.

"Obviously Conor is a good athlete, but he's not on the radar no more. Everybody at SportsCenter and ESPN, they want to keep posting these videos, they want to make that sure Conor stays in the limelight. But I'm gonna be real, the two athletes keeping this sport alive are myself and Justin Gaethje at UFC 249."

Bold move by Ferguson to take a shot at ESPN while on ESPN. This is also a perfect opportunity for McDonald's to sponsor Ferguson if they're big enough to admit he's referencing McNuggets when he talks about the pink paste. Unlikely, but we can dream.

We've come to expect nothing less than fighting words, as the kids say, from the various personalities that make up UFC, but this is a doozy. I'm quite certain McGregor will have something to say about this on Twitter in a short while, but he'll have to bide his time if he wants revenge against Ferguson in the ring.