Conor McGregor has been slammed by UFC fighter Kelvin Gastelum after the Dubliner mocked his latest injury, which cost him his comeback fight against Nassourdine Imavov.
Gastelum was replaced at short notice by Sean Strickland for the main event of this weekend's first UFC card of the year, suffering a gruesome facial injury in the lead-up to his first fight since August of 2021. The former middleweight title contender showed off his injuries in a series of social media posts, which drew the ire of McGregor.
The Notorious took to Instagram to send a vitriolic message towards Gastelum, who had shared a picture with a missing tooth and a gnarly cut on his face, reports The Mirror. In a story post, he wrote: "Absolute scruff this thing is. That's full on staph infection all over his f***ing face. A full f***ing hole omg and it's his second time to attempt to enter competition like this."
McGregor finished his message by asking "What The F***!" And telling him "Clean your mats. Wash yourself. F***ing go to the doctor! Scruff." Gastelum hit back with a brief reply on Twitter, responding to a re-upload of the Irishman's comments from a fan account by saying "Relax you lil' leprechaun."
Gastelum wrote of his withdrawal from the fight: "I’m extremely disappointed to say the least. This not how I wanted to start 2023. I worked my a** off and battled through a lot of adversary and was ready to put on a hell of a show this weekend. I apologise to Imavov, his camp as well as the UFC and all of the fans."
There is history between Gastelum and McGregor over the fighter's battles with staph infection. Ahead of a fight that was ultimately cancelled between he and Robert Whittaker in 2019, the Irishman branded him a "worm" for fighting with the skin condition. Gastelum was battling staph before the doomed event and McGregor asked the UFC to sterilise a title belt after the middleweight was pictured holding it.
At the time, McGregor wrote: "Why is that worm holding the 185lb belt? There are worms crawling on his skin! It was absolutely ludicrous to even consider allowing him to compete. Let alone now walk around the arena shaking our fans hands. Someone sort this, this instant. And sterilise that belt. Immediately."
McGregor is the most famous fighter in the history of the UFC, and has headlined six of the promotion's top ten pay-per-view events. He was the first champion to hold belts simultaneously in two divisions; lightweight and featherweight, and has now bulked up with an aim of moving to welterweight and pursuing an unprecedented third belt.
Gastelum has fought for interim gold at middleweight, but has recently had a difficult run of form going 1-5 in his last six and spending the last year-and-a-half out of action. He was replaced by Strickland this weekend, with the middleweight bout being moved to light-heavyweight.
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