Ahead of his fight at UFC 274, Tony Ferguson has hit out at UFC president Dana White for behaving like a “drug dealer.”Ferguson will be in action in Pheonix, Arizona against fellow lightweight contender Michael Chandler on May 7.Earlier this week White explicitly reviled that he believes boxers are overpaid in an interview with the Pivot podcast.When Ferguson was asked about these comments by the MMA promotion’s president, he didn’t mince his words.“I think we are underpaid personally. I’m not going to say it too much. Dana said something the other day talking about how boxers are overpaid.“I asked Dana to box, he said: ‘f*** no’. I’m like: ‘why?’ I want to go play baseball, I want to go do other pro sports because I’m an athlete. I grew up playing different sports at a very high level.“I come from Grand Valley state university as a wrestler, I want to go and do pro-wrestling.

“I want to go and do all these things, but I have this guy [Dana White] acting like a f****** drug dealer telling me I can’t do this s***. I want to go make more money for my family.

The UFC lightweight was quick to point out that he wasn’t the only UFC fighter that believes they’ve been unfairly treated by the promotion.

“You should ask some of the other fighters that have been f****** treated like s*** for a long time too. I'm not the only one thinking it.

Ferguson was stripped of his interim lightweight title when he was forced to withdraw from a bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov after injuring himself at a TV studio.

“I took a bad fall at Fox, they took my title from me. I should have sued, but I wanted to be the man.

“That’s a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. To keep coming in here and smiling, to be used on a poster and to have that high value.

“The promoters here act like drug dealers sometimes. They just throw down a couple bucks here and they’re like: ‘Come here, kid. Here, take this, take this, take this.’

“And if you don’t have the will to say no to that stupid s***, you’re going to get f***ed.

JACKSONVILLE, FL - APRIL 24: UFC President Dana White is seen during UFC 261 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on April 24, 2021 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Alex Menendez/Getty Images)

YouTuber turned professional boxer Jake Paul showed his support for Ferguson’s comments on Twitter saying: “Don’t listen to me, listen to a UFC fighter, who has the courage to speak up.”

“Dana White is a billionaire while fighters are itching and clawing to make ends meet.”

This isn’t the first time Jake Paul has spoken out against how much White pays UFC fighters for their fights.

Back in January, the two were involved in a spat with Paul demanding that White increases the minimum pay owed to fighters.

He also called on the 52-year-old to provide long-term healthcare for fighters and agree to a 50 per cent revenue split.