Conor McGregor has claimed that he was "chilling" in the famous photo of himself slumped against the cage after his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018.
The legendary former two-weight world champion returned to the octagon for the first time after becoming lightweight champion and boxing Floyd Mayweather when he faced the Russian for the belt at UFC 229. The pair shared a bitter feud, with the Irishman at one point even spending a night behind bars for an attack on his rival's bus. Their fight was the biggest in MMA history.
But in the cage, it wasn't particularly competitive, with Nurmagomedov getting the Irishman to the ground and landing big shots in the first and second, before losing the third. In the fourth, McGregor was unable to resist his opponent's advances and he ultimately submitted to a neck crank in the championship rounds.
However, amid a lengthy tirade from the former champion on Twitter yesterday, he claimed that in a picture of Nurmagomedov celebrating his win he was "a lion chilling". The Irishman also called his rival a "rat knawing [sic]", and declared that he would "batter the whole family", before going back on that promise in a later message.
"The lion king chills," McGregor wrote alongside the picture of Nurmagomedov standing over him after UFC 229. "Unscathed. They’ll do nothin. Wait and I get up I'm going to batter the whole family. On top of the cage, the lot. That’s a f***in' lion chillin' right there. and a rat knawing [sic]."
In a now-deleted tweet, the Irishman shortly after wrote: "Actually you know what I don’t want to fight the smellbag there are way better fights out there but let it be known the biggest wet the bed in fighting history is what this guy is. Think of the magnitude this fight wound have. Absolute bottler you are. Father going to slap you 100 per cent."
McGregor went on a tirade on social media yesterday, seemingly after rewatching his fight with Nurmagomedov and noting Joe Rogan's commentary that indicated he was being badly beaten. He joked about Rogan's describing his second round knee, which did go against MMA's rules against striking a grounded opponent, as illegal.
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He branded the unique attack the "Springbok knee", and believes that it should be allowed if one can land it. He was on his back, being held down by Nurmagomedov, and landed the knee from an awkward angle, but technically as the Russian was on the ground he constitutes a grounded opponent.
"I call this knee strike 'the Springbok' Remember Reebok? Yeah well this is Springbok," McGregor wrote. "You ever see a springbok jump? Well just have a look at that knee, springbok into his eye socket haha. I’m the greatest of all-time at unseen shots. That’s without question. God bless the dead."
He later added a photo of a springbok leaping from the ground with the caption: "This is a springbok, I’m just after making them. Springboks are made now yeah."
