Conor McGregor has been blasted as a "b****" and a "s***bag" by rival Marvin Vettori after branding rival Beneil Dariush the "biggest nobody" in the UFC.
The former two-weight world champion has managed to remain one of the biggest headline-grabbers in the sport, despite being injured for the best part of the year and unable to fight. He has kept active on social media with a string of 'tweet and delete' attacks on fellow fighters, most recently taking aim at Dariush.
And after taking to Twitter to brand his lightweight rival the "biggest nobody in the company", top middleweights Vettori and Kelvin Gastelum took aim at the Irishman. Vettori tweeted: "What a b****. You couldn’t last two minutes with Beneil and that’s just a fact. You are s***bag, I hope to see you soon."
Gastelum, the former interim champion at 185lb, replied by simply saying "facts" under Vettori's message, while Khabib Nurmagomedov's manager Ali Abdelaziz said that he, Vettori and Dariush should "kill" the Dublin native. “I hop in with you Beneil Dariush will kill this punk," said the Dominance MMA boss.
McGregor was likely reacting to Dariush's frustrations as the No.1 UFC lightweight Charles Oliveira continues to angle for a bout with the Irishman, despite him having lost his last two. Oliveira, who is the champion in all but name after being stripped for missing weight, has been pushing to face the Irishman even though his UFC record at the weight is 1-3.
Dariush isn't the only one concerned that McGregor could get a seemingly undeserved shot at the gold, with Islam Makhachev even calling in the help of pal Khabib Nurmagomedov to attempt to get Dana White to grant him a title shot. Makhachev and Dariush had been set to fight earlier this year before the Iranian suffered a knee injury in training.
Makhachev, from Russia, holds a ten-fight winning streak in the promotion currently, while Dariush has won his last seven. But they have both been passed up for world title opportunities, with Oliveira instead fighting Justin Gaethje in his last defence.
What do you make of Conor McGregor's latest 'tweet and delete'? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
“What actually is really bothering me is Charles Oliveira,” Dariush said in an interview with MMAFighting, that likely caused McGregor's outburst. “He’s talking about wanting to fight Conor, and he talks about how these guys never gave him a shot when he was outside the top five, blah, blah, blah.
“He was supposed to fight me, bailed, went and fought Tony Ferguson," Dariush continued. "And now instead of fighting actual contenders, he wants to go fight Conor? He wants to go fight Nate Diaz? This is hypocritical, man. This is the only thing that’s bothering me.
“I understand the media has their thing, I understand the UFC has their part, but for him to be chasing a unicorn? It’s just super frustrating. There’s two clear contenders in front of you and you’re trying to chase a unicorn.
"And no one knows when Conor is going to fight again. The guy might not even fight this year. He might just be like, ‘Oh, the leg is taking too long. I’ll fight next year.’ Whatever. What is going on here? Make it make sense. It just doesn’t make sense.”
