Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor escalated his verbal spat with Daniel Cormier on Wednesday apparently in response to the retired UFC star's comments on his DC & RC podcast.

In a series of tweets, the Irishman claimed without evidence that Cormier attended a media event for McGregor-Poirier III while drunk and wondered if UFC should fire him as a commentator while mocking Cormier's appearance:

https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/1425624375072477188

https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/1425624728773947396

https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/1425625001483390976

Those comments came shortly after Cormier went on his podcast to tell McGregor to focus on his spiraling career after McGregor called him a "fat drunk f--k" in a since-deleted tweet. The former two-division champion has dropped back-to-back bouts for the first time in his career and has lost four of his last seven fights.

"So McGregor, listen to me bud. Stop worrying about me. Don't worry about Daniel Cormier," Cormier said (h/t Steven Marrocco of MMA Fighting). "Don't worry about the things that I'm saying. Don't worry about how I'm dressing and how I'm looking. Don't do that. Worry about the dudes that keep beating your ass every time you go into the Octagon."

It's not uncommon for McGregor to make incendiary or offensive comments on social media—especially when he's waiting to find his next opponent. That has taken a rather cruel turn recently with McGregor tweeting—then deleting—an insult referencing the death of former rival Khabib Nurmagomedov's father, Abdulmanap.

"When someone is not with us–he is not even alive–this shows what you have inside. This shows how dirty you are." Nurmagomedov said Mike Tyson's Hotboxin' podcast in response to the comments. "When you one of the best in the world and you come and you punch someone who is like 70 years old, like an old man [in a pub], this shows your heart. This shows who you are inside, how dirty you are. When you have parents and you have kids, how can you show yourself like this? I don't understand why his close people don't go, 'Hey, what's going on?'"

Neither Cormier nor UFC has responded to McGregor's latest claims as of Wednesday evening. McGregor continues to rehab a broken leg he suffered against Poirier in their last bout. UFC currently has no plans for a return to the Octagon for its one-time biggest star.

Former UFC star Khabib Nurmagomedov thought longtime rival Conor McGregor crossed a clear line with a since-deleted tweet that many thought referenced Khabib's late father, Abdulmanap.

"When [Conor] talked about this, only evil can talk about your father, wife, kids, religion," Nurmagomedov said on Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson (via TMZ Sports). "If you're normal human, you're never going to talk about this stuff."

After McGregor lost to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 on July 10, Khabib tweeted that "Good always defeats evil."

Good always defeats evil.
Very happy for @DustinPoirier I hope you will get the belt end of the year

— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) July 11, 2021

On Monday, McGregor tweeted and subsequently deleted, "Covid is good and father is evil?"

Abdulmanap died in July 2020 after experiencing complications stemming from his COVID-19 diagnosis.

Khabib took the death of his father hard. He unexpectedly retired immediately after his victory over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 in October 2020 and said at the time "there's no way I'm going to be back without my father."

McGregor has made his career in part on insulting his opponents and their camps to generate more attention for his fights. Khabib isn't an exception.

Prior to his encounter with the unbeaten legend at UFC 229, he called Nurmagomedov's trainer, Ali Abdelaziz, a "snitch terrorist rat." McGregor also targeted Nurmagomedov's wife in a since-deleted tweet in 2019.

In an interview with ESPN's Brett Okamoto last October, Nurmagomedov said he would turn down $5 billion to be involved in a season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite McGregor. After the Irish star's recent Twitter post, that stance probably remains unchanged.

After Dustin Poirier defeated Conor McGregor at UFC 264, when McGregor broke his leg, former UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov tweeted that "Good always defeats evil."

McGregor responded in a since-deleted tweet that "Covid is good and father is evil?" That appeared to be in reference to Nurmagomedov's father Abdulmanap dying from COVID-19 complications last year.

On Wednesday, Nurmagomedov responded to McGregor's comments during an appearance on the Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson show (34:40 mark):

When he talk about this—you know, only evil can talk about your father, wife, kids, religion. If you're normal human, you're never gonna talk about this stuff. For me, I think he post this tweet, like, drunk too much or do something. And the next day, I think—and he always delete these tweets. And I think when he become all normal life and say, 'Oh, what I did.' And he delete. This is my opinion what he do all the time.

At that point, Tyson added the opinion that everything goes while promoting a fight. While Nurmagomedov agreed with that idea, McGregor and Nurmagomedov aren't currently promoting a matchup.

Nurmagomedov continued:

When someone is not with us—he is not even alive—this is show you what you have inside. This is show you how dirty you are. When you one of the best in the world and you come and you punch someone like 70, like old man, this is show your heart. This is show who you are inside, how dirty you are. When you have parents and you have kids, how you can show yourself like this? I don't understand why his close people don't tell him, 'Hey, what's going on?'

Former UFC fighter Henry Cejudo, who was serving as a co-host on the show, then asked Nurmagomedov what he thought might be missing from McGregor's life that he felt the need to comment on his deceased father:

When you become rich, when you become famous, some people they lose real people around him. They lose them. Because real people who love you, they gonna tell you true. But fake people? They always say, 'You good, you good, you good.' They never say to you nothing because they don't want to upset you because they know they gonna lose this comfortable zone. But real people, they don't care about this. They was with you before you become famous and rich. They don't care about your money. They don't care about your fame. They just love you. ... I think he lose a lot of people around him. It's just my opinion. I don't think he have people who was with him before when he become champion. Everybody needs someone who remind you, 'Hey you're doing this. This is bad. This is good. This is bad.'

Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor by submission in the fourth round of their lightweight championship fight at UFC 229 in October 2018. It was arguably the most high-profile fight in UFC history.

The lead-up to that bout was intense, from McGregor's use of offensive language to throwing a chair at a bus carrying Nurmagomedov and other fighters. And after Nurmagomedov's victory at UFC 229, chaos broke out in the Octagon. The victor jumped out of the cage and went after a member of McGregor's team, while three members of his own team went after McGregor in the Octagon.

Suffice to say, there is bad blood between the two men. But there are also limits, and in this instance, Nurmagomedov feels as though McGregor more than crossed the line.

Khabib Nurmagomedov reiterated Monday night that he is retired and has no plans to ever return to the UFC.

In an interview with TMZ Sports, Khabib was emphatic when asked about his future inside the Octagon:

Responding to a question about whether he will ever fight again, Khabib said "no" several times in a row.

Khabib was also asked if he felt Conor McGregor "crossed the line" with a tweet that seemed to reference his father, which was later deleted. Khabib responded, "I think so."

After Khabib tweeted, "Good always defeats evil. Very happy for Dustin Poirier," in the wake of Poirier's victory over McGregor at UFC 264, McGregor tweeted and then deleted, "Covid is good and father is evil?"

Khabib's father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, died in July 2020 due to complications from COVID-19.

McGregor and Khabib have a well-documented rivalry that dates back to 2018. Before UFC 223, McGregor threw a metal dolly through the window of a bus Khabib was riding on for media.

Then, at UFC 229, Khabib beat McGregor by fourth-round submission to retain the UFC lightweight title and remain undefeated. After the fight, a huge brawl broke out inside the Octagon.

McGregor continued to poke and prod Khabib on social media in the weeks, months and years after that fight.

Khabib went on to fight two more times, beating Poirier and Justin Gaethje. After beating Gaethje at UFC 254 in October by submission, Khabib announced his retirement.

Nurmagomedov cited keeping a promise to his mother and no longer wanting to fight after the passing of his father as reasons for stepping away.

Since Khabib is just 32 years old and owns a perfect record of 29-0, speculation has persisted regarding him possibly fighting again one day.

Khabib continues to make it clear that he has no plans to fight again, however, even with McGregor calling him out repeatedly.

As for McGregor, he has now lost back-to-back fights to Poirier, and he must rehab a leg injury before fighting again, as he suffered a broken tibia in his second loss to Poirier last month.

Daniel Cormier thinks Conor McGregor's taken the trash talk way too far.

The former UFC champion and current analyst responded to McGregor's since-deleted "Covid is good and father is evil?" tweet, presumably about Khabib Nurmagomedov's father Abdulmanap, who died from COVID-19 complications in July 2020.

Cormier blasted McGregor for the comments during his ESPN show with Ryan Clark (h/t Damon Martin of MMA Fighting):

I get shock value and I get trying to get people to talk but way too far. To the point that I immediately called Khabib last night and said, 'Are you OK?' Asking him if he's OK after having to see that, especially with no ability to do anything about it again. He spoke to my kids at my wrestling program the other day and said he was never happier than when he got to fight McGregor on the day. Because for so long, he wanted to get his hands on Conor and beat Conor up.

Well, he can't do that no more cause he's not a prizefighter anymore. So now he just has to kind of swallow that. Way too far. Honestly, when Conor does stuff like that, it's hard to understand how there's still this mass amount of people that support that type of behavior.

McGregor was apparently responding to the following tweet from Nurmagomedov, who posted it after McGregor broke his leg versus Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 and lost by TKO:

Good always defeats evil.
Very happy for @DustinPoirier I hope you will get the belt end of the year

— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) July 11, 2021

And Cormier couldn't believe McGregor would stoop to insulting Nurmagomedov's deceased father.

"When you're dealing with death and COVID and all these other things that we've dealt with over the last year and a half, that's all off limits," he said. "We talked about wives and families being off limits, but when you're talking about a man's everything—Khabib's dad was his everything—and you're talking about him being gone today due to something that has been so terrible for our entire world, you use that in a sense to get back?"

McGregor's trash talk has gone beyond the pale in the past. Before his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017, he at one point told his opponent to "Dance for me, boy" while Mayweather shadowboxed. 

And when there was backlash to those racist comments and others, McGregor doubled down, perpetuating stereotypes. 

"All of the media seem to be saying I'm against Black people. ... Do they not know I'm half Black?" he said at the time. "I'm half Black from the belly button down."

He also brought Poirier's wife, Jolie, into his web of trash talk before UFC 264 in July: 

pic.twitter.com/kdI3GStMeL

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 6, 2021

He also brought up Jolie—who flipped off McGregor after the fight—in his post-bout comments.

"Your wife is in my DMs," McGregor said. "Hey, baby, hit me back up on chat later on. We'll be at the after-party, the Wynn nightclub, baby. [Inaudible], you little hoe. F--k him."

There's trash talk, and then there are remarks like that. For Cormier, and surely many others in the sport, McGregor has lost the plot.

"Absolutely crossed the line. I think when stuff like that is being said, it's a cry for help," he said of the comments about Nurmagomedov's father. "Conor has all the money in the world, he has all the fame, but now when you start to dig at that level, it's like somebody needs to get to McGregor and help him to start to kind of re-shift his mind and his focus and get him back to a better place. It's unfortunate."

Jake Paul is ready to take on even bigger names after his upcoming bout against Tyron Woodley, including MMA superstar Conor McGregor.

"I think there's a 90 percent chance of [the McGregor fight] happening," Paul told Tom Taylor of Maxim. "That's the biggest fight that Conor can do. It'd be the biggest payday for him."

Paul had been discussing a potential $50 million offer for a fight with McGregor since last year.

McGregor is one of the biggest names in combat sports, but he is coming off consecutive losses to Dustin Poirier and has just one UFC win since 2016. He could be the next target for Paul, who rose to fame as a social media personality but is now 3-0 in his boxing career.

Paul will look to take the next step as a fighter with a challenging bout against another MMA star in Woodley on Aug. 29. He and his brother, Logan Paul, have taken part in multiple high-profile pay-per-view fights over the past couple of years, with Logan recently facing Floyd Mayweather in an eight-round exhibition.

Jake Paul hopes to continue this run of popularity with a potential bout against current boxing star Canelo Alvarez, ESPN's best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

"I'm very confident," he said of a fight with Canelo. "He's a killer at 168 pounds, but people forget that I naturally walk around at about 205, so there's a big weight difference. There's a big height advantage."

While the 24-year-old projected this matchup could be three years away, Paul believes no opponent is out of reach.

"I'm sort of thinking about it one fight at a time," he said. "Anything is possible after my brother fought Floyd Mayweather. I could fight anybody after this."

Jake Paul remains optimistic about a potential clash with UFC star Conor McGregor.

"I'm the money fight for Conor McGregor right now," he said during an appearance Friday on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. "There is no other fighter right now who is on as big of a level as me that is calling out Conor McGregor and wants to fight Conor."

Paul added that his representatives have reached out to members of the McGregor camp.

"If I do fight @TheNotoriousMMA, I'm going to knock him out. I think @TWooodley is a harder opponent than him."

— @jakepaul pic.twitter.com/RC0E1wTkTC

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) July 23, 2021

When the 24-year-old first called out McGregor in a profanity-laced social media post last December, the odds of him actually fighting the former featherweight and lightweight champion seemed remote.

Since then, Paul earned a first-round TKO of former UFC star Ben Askren and lined up an event with former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in August. McGregor, meanwhile, suffered consecutive defeats to Dustin Poirier, leading many to wonder about his next steps.

Paul even made light of McGregor's recent results, saying on Undisputed that he "[doesn't] wanna fight losers."

"Jake Paul vs Conor McGregor would be one of the biggest PPV in the history of boxing. But I don't wanna fight losers, the guy keeps on losing, his act is being exposed."

— @jakepaul pic.twitter.com/OcOnRpFhD4

— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) July 14, 2021

The merits of Paul vs. McGregor as an athletic endeavor are limited. There's no question it would be a massive financial success, though, were it to actually happen.

Welcome back to TGIFighting, where we talk to top fighters, preview the weekend's combat sports action and make crotchety observations about the MMA news of the day. Ready? Let's go!

     

B/R Exclusive: The Next Khabib? Islam Makhachev Has Sights on Lightweight Division 

Islam Makhachev isn't quite sure how many rounds he's sparred with Khabib Nurmadomedov, but he's got a rough estimate. 

"More than a thousand."

Simply put, Makhachev (19-1) is the latest monster to emerge from Russia's Dagestan region. The 29-year-old has long been favorably compared with teammate and mentor Nurmagomedov (29-0), who happens to be every normal person's pick for the best lightweight in MMA history.

With Nurmagomedov now retired, it's Makhachev's time to shine. This Saturday marks his coming-out party as he appears in his first UFC main event, where he'll take on heavy underdog Thiago Moises (15-4) in the culminating bout of UFC on ESPN 26.

"This is a big step in my career because it's a main event, five rounds," the soft-spoken Makhachev told me in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. "All the attention is gonna be on me, and I can show my skills. Moises beat some top guys. He has good striking, good jiu-jitsu. But I am going to show my skills."

If it bothers him to live in Nurmagomedov's shadow, he doesn't let on. It doesn't come as a surprise that they both have similar, grappling-oriented styles that involve sadistically breaking down an opponent's will to fight. Of his 19 wins, 11 have come by stoppage, with eight by submission.

Although Nurmagomedov's standup was a little more polished, Makhachev says it doesn't make much difference because, well, people can't seem to stop his ground game.

"It's normal, because all my life I'm training with him," he said. "We both like to pressure our opponents. We have the same style. ... My striking is good, but I have wrestling, I know. I have wrestling more than everybody. So I just choose the easy way, you know?"  

The similarities are further explained by the fact that both men trained under Nurmagomedov's father, Abdulmanap, who died last year because of complications related to COVID-19.  

"I think about him all the time," Makhachev said. "He always said I was going to be champion." 

It's not an abstraction or empty motivational sloganeering. Accordingly, Makhachev has a concrete blueprint. He's sharply aware of his place in the division and on the official UFC lightweight rankings, and he has an ambitious but realistic plan to get to the top of this crowded weight class—assuming he can take care of business.

"Now I am No. 9, but I think maybe after this fight I am gonna be like eight, seven," he said. "After that I think two more fights, and then in 2022 I fight for the title."

Makhachev is watching the top of the division closely, including last weekend's calamitous main event at UFC 264 between Conor McGregor (22-6) and Dustin Poirier (28-6, 1 NC), which ended with a doctor's stoppage TKO after McGregor broke his leg under decidely odd circumstances.

Nurmagomedov, who defeated McGregor in 2018 and Poirier in 2019, has been lobbing verbal grenades at McGregor ever since (more on that below). Makhachev doesn't join in exactly, but he doesn't object, either.

"Honestly, I don't like Conor too much," he continued. "Because he is a bad person, you know? It was very bad, what he said before the fight, about [Poirier's] family, about Poirier, about the fight."

If everything goes according to plan, and Makhachev proves equal to the hype, he may well get a shot at McGregor down the road. It all starts Saturday with the biggest fight of Makhachev's career.

     

Conor's "Behind the Music" Nadir Continues

If you're too young to remember Behind the Music, the VH1 docudrama's formula was pretty simple: band is really good, band gets famous, fame goes to their heads, they spin out of control, redemption story ensues.

Guess what segment we're on with the Conor McGregor episode.

After suffering perhaps the most ironic broken leg in the history of that particular injury, McGregor now faces at least six months on the shelf as UFC 264 opponent Dustin Poirier moves on with a TKO by doctor's stoppage and eyes a megawatt dance later this year or early next with lightweight champ Charles Oliveira (31-8, 1 NC).

Meanwhile, the MMA world is nowhere near finished piling on McGregor, be it for the loss or the incessant trash talk that sometimes gets a little too personal. And Team McGregor is not done firing back—far from it. Let's take a little walk back over the last week, shall we? It's a veritable cavalcade of haterade. 

- Tuesday: Former UFC bantamweight champ and current broadcaster Dominick Cruz wondered how McGregor can grow if he can't accept defeat. 

- Sunday, Monday and Tuesday: Nurmagomedov absolutely hammered the former double champ. He called McGregor "evil," and told ESPN's Brett Okamoto the Irishman is both a "bag of s--t" and "finished." He also said Poirier would beat him 100 times out of 100. This is what we in journalism circles refer to as cold-blooded. But after McGregor's sore loserdom, it's hard to argue he didn't put this target on his own back.

- Tuesday: WWE legend Kurt Angle added some levity to the proceedings, saying McGregor's gruesome leg break was nary a big deal.

- Tuesday: Speaking to W2W (h/t Fox Sports), McGregor coach John Kavanagh questioned broadcaster Joe Rogan's decision to interview McGregor in the cage, even as medical personnel were attempting to stabilize the leg.

- Wednesday: YouTuber Jake Paul entered the fray, calling McGregor a "piece of s--t" when speaking to TMZ and adding McGregor has "lost the sauce" in an interview with Real 92.3 LA's Big Boy's Neighborhood (h/t Hypebeast).

Dang.

If McGregor's career arc unfolds true to cliche, this is the part where he looks inward, realizes it's up to him and him alone, mends his fences and faults, recovers that lost spark and rises like a phoenix from the ashes to smite all his doubters. That's the happy version, anyway.

       

Tyron Woodley vs Jake Paul Fight Date Announced 

Are you a diehard MMA fan looking for hardcore MMA news? This is your section. Just kidding, this is where we talk about YouTube celebrities.

If you're looking for a veneer of seriousness, consider the side bet these two created, whereby the loser gets "I Love [Winner's Name]" tattooed on their body. Presumably, they meant the permanent kind. No word on font.

I can't see Woodley doing this, even if he loses. Someone review the contract carefully so he can't wriggle out through a loophole. 

     

Congrats to Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy (15-4) has scrapped and clawed her way to the top of the women's flyweight division. Her style isn't always pretty, but "Lucky" Lauren is tough as nails and knows how to grind out wins. 

She's on a five-fight win streak, which paid off this week when the UFC announced that the 37-year-old fan favorite will tangle with seemingly unbeatable champion Valentina Shevchenko (21-3), who is rapidly running out of challengers in the division. 

Will Murphy give her a solid knock? In all candor, it seems unlikely given the well-rounded game and pure firepower Valentina brings to the table. But just by virtue of getting here after 11 fights and seven years in the UFC, Murphy has already won. 

      

Stone Cold Lead Pipe Lock of the Week

Record to date: 14-4

Makhachev is a massive -850 favorite to handle Moises, per DraftKings. That's too big to be fun, even for this conservative betting space. Let's instead look elsewhere on the main card, where fast-rising Mateusz Gamrot (18-1, 1 NC) is a -210 favorite to defeat Jeremy Stephens (28-18, 1 NC). Stephens is the bigger name, but he's winless in his last five contests.

Gamrot is 1-1 but made good on his potential in his last bout, where he knocked out a solid opponent in Scott Holtzman (14-5) in the second round. Gamrot doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. That changes after Saturday. Lock it in.

Nate Diaz called out Dustin Poirier on Thursday night. So Poirier responded. 

I'd touch you up at any weight

— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) July 16, 2021

Well OK then.

Diaz is coming off a decision loss to Leon Edwards at UFC 263, while Poirier beat Conor McGregor for the second straight time at UFC 264 after McGregor broke his leg. 

Diaz and Poirier have never squared off, though they were scheduled to fight at UFC 230 before a hip injury forced Poirier to withdraw ahead of the matchup. That fight was set to be a lightweight matchup, not middleweight, which Diaz seems to want for any future fight with Poirier. 

Granted, Poirier may simply opt for a title fight. But a Diaz-Poirier fight seems like a safe bet for some point in the future.

Conor McGregor said Thursday that he had stress fractures in his leg prior to his UFC 264 fight against Dustin Poirier last weekend.

McGregor made the declaration in a video he posted on Instagram (video contains NSFW language). Per ESPN's SportsCenter, the Irishman said: "I was injured going into the fight. ... Ask [UFC President] Dana White, ask Dr. Davidson, the head doctor of the UFC. ... I had stress fractures in my leg going into that cage."

Poirier was declared the winner at UFC 264 by technical knockout after one round. The doctor was forced to stop the fight since McGregor suffered a gruesome leg injury to his lower tibia.

The UFC 264 bout was a rematch from UFC 257 in January when Poirier beat McGregor by second-round TKO.

McGregor was a substantial favorite going into the UFC 257 fight, but Poirier picked up the win and avenged his loss to McGregor at UFC 178 in 2014.

Per ESPN's Marc Raimondi, McGregor said after the fight that his rivalry with Poirier is "not over," and White suggested there would be a fourth fight between them once McGregor heals from his injury.

Poirier said, "I beat the guy," and insisted that he injured McGregor on a checked kick in the first round, although McGregor denied that the injury was a result of anything Poirier did.

Regardless of how the fight was decided, McGregor has now dropped three of his past four decisions and four of his past seven with two losses to Poirier, one to Khabib Nurmagomedov and one to Nate Diaz.

The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion is now 22-6 in his professional MMA career, and he has a long road back to title contention.

Meanwhile, White said Poirier is the next in line to challenge Charles Oliveira for the UFC lightweight title.

Poirier previously held the interim UFC lightweight championship, but if The Diamond can beat Oliveira, it will mark the first full-fledged title of his UFC career.