Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmogomedov escalated their war on social media yesterday which required the UFC to step in which may have spurred an “moving forward” mea culpa by the former double champion.
The social media sparring began with McGregor posting a batch of pictures depicting a beaten Pauli Malignaggi after he had sparred the former lightweight champ as he prepared for his fight for Floyd Mayweather. This was likely due to the Malignaggi getting into an altercation with McGregor stablemate Artem Lobov. The showdown preceded Malignaggi and Lobov facing one another in a bare-knuckle boxing bout.
After his salvo against his former sparring partner, McGregor took aim at Khabib. In two social media posts, he posted pictures of Khabib and his wife and made a derogatory comment regarding his wife. The tweet was deleted by McGregor. However, the damage had been done. Ali Abdelaziz, Khabib’s manager sent out a tweet attacking McGregor.
Khabib then tweeted an alleged photo of McGregor with a woman that was not the mother of his children. The man’s face is blocked but the man in the photo is grabbing the woman. Khabib claimed Conor to be a “rapist” and a “hypocrite.” This may be in referenced to the allegations which have finally made public that McGregor is accused of sexual misconduct in Dublin stemming from a December 2018 incident.
Dana White issued a statement via Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports:
I am aware of the recent social media exchange between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. The ongoing situation has escalated to a level that is unacceptable. As such, we are taking the necessary steps to reach out to both athlete camps and this situation is being addressed by all parties internally.” — UFC president Dana White
On Wednesday afternoon, McGregor sent out a tweet which seems to claw back the low-class attacks on Khabib:
I want to move forward, with my fans of all faiths and all backgrounds.
All faiths challenge us to be our best selves.
It is one world and one for all ❤️
Now see you in the Octagon.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 4, 2019
Payout Perspective:
One has to think that public relations from the UFC and Conor McGregor worked together on the last tweet. It’s clear that White was concerned about the social media escalation going on between the two fight camps based on the melee that occurred this past October. The lack of professionalism by McGregor and the inappropriate response by Khabib is a part of the fight game but it doesn’t have to be. While the social media fighting has become a way to trash talk opponents, there is a fine line of decorum and it seems like McGregor crossed it and Khabib followed along. It’s clear that while White issued a warning, he has to tame the fued and it alive for a future fight.
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