Conor McGregor has labelled himself the 'goat' after UFC rival Henry Cejudo critiqued his latest training footage.
McGregor, 34, is gearing up for his octagon return having not fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in their trilogy fight last July. The former two-weight champion was hoping to fight again before the end of the year, but his return has been delayed until 2023 as he continues to recover from his injury and is busy with a Hollywood role.
Cejudo, who like McGregor is also a former two-weight UFC champion, offered the Irishman advice after watching one of his training videos. Cejudo often goads McGregor on Twitter and 'Triple C' recently mocked a video that showed McGregor seemingly receiving a sexual act on his yacht. Cejudo posted a YouTube video breaking down McGregor hitting pads, to which he replied: "Haha show me your head kick on the power pad, my bro. I'm the f****n goat an ya know it."
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McGregor has confused fans with his recent social media posts, one of which showed him doing an exercise called "spinal waves". It's far from the sort of training clips fans expected to see as McGregor looks to make the " greatest comeback in sports history " and Cejudo said the Irishman has taken his title as the 'king of cringe'.
"Conor McGregor might be the real king of cringe if you look at it," he said. "When you talk about bringing the macarena back, look at Conor McGregor twerking. I think he's trying to get elusive here [in his hips]. I get what he's trying to do, but it's not his mobility that he needs help on. He needs help on understanding leverage and how to distribute his weight when it comes to getting taken down."
McGregor fought twice last year, being stopped by Poirier on both occasions. By the time he returns to the octagon, three years would have passed since his last win. Cejudo thinks McGregor needs to implement feints and fakes into his training regime otherwise he will be too predictable upon his return.
"It could be a powerful kick, the only problem is everyone is going to know it’s coming because it’s done naked," he added. "This is why you want to train as you would practice. A lot of people go, ‘Oh you’re hitting pads!’ It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whatever it is that you’re doing, you have to make sure you’re feinting and you’re doing it all. You can’t just throw naked. He throws one punch and then he bounces out and then he comes out of position again."
