Yesterday at a media lunch to hype the upcoming UFC 216, Fabricio Werdum and Tony Ferguson wound each other up to the point of near physicality, with the two squaring off and shouting aggressively.

The incident came after Ferguson had told Werdum (in Spanish) to shut up while Ferguson answered a question, to which Werdum angrily leapt to his feet and began shouting at the lightweight, who in turn squared up with the Brazilian.

Werdum began a verbal tirade littered with expletives in both Portuguese and Spanish, including the repeated use of a homophobic slur.

“Shut your mouth, you fucking f****t,” Werdum said in Spanish. “Don’t talk to me like that, that’s not how it works. You can talk like that to your division but with me you can’t talk like that f****t.”

Today in response to the criticism, Werdum took to his social media to apologise to any offended in the gay community, stating that “Maricon is common word in the Spanish culture and I do not mean to offend anyone in the LBG community and if I did I’m apologetic.”

Maricon is common word in the Spanish culture and I do not mean to offend anyone in the LBG community and if I did I'm apologetic #heeyy

— Fabricio Werdum (@FabricioWerdum) September 29, 2017

It’s not the first time Werdum has been criticised for using the word.

Recently, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier posted a lengthy statement to his Instagram, asking fans to give Jon Jones time to go through an arbitration process before attacking him. The move was seen as a class act, but fans noted Werdum commented on the post ‘Maricon!’ with a laughing emoji.

While Werdum later clarified that he and Cormier were friends, and he was using the word as a joke, the two recent uses have painted the former heavyweight champion in a negative light, and will no doubt draw criticisms going forward.