Conor McGregor continues UFC 229 mind games, fires more shots at Khabib and his team
CONOR MCGREGOR’s mind games are well and truly in full flow ahead of his eagerly-anticipated showdown with Khabib Nurmagomedov.
McGregor will challenge Nurmagomedov for the lightweight title in the main event of UFC 229 on October 6.
A feud between the pair and their respective teams has been brewing for nearly two years following an altercation during the UFC 205 fight week.
It reached new levels in April at the UFC 223 media day in Brooklyn, where McGregor threw a dolly through the window of a bus carrying Nurmagomedov and a number of his fellow fighters.
McGregor began his customary pre-fight mental warfare on Friday afternoon, sending a message to Nurmagomedov and his father Abdulmanap.
Alongside a screenshot from Al Iaquinta’s video from inside the bus he attacked at the Barclays Center, McGregor wrote: “@abdulmanap.nurmagomedov I can see you.
“Cowering behind fake respect. Just like your middle child. A quivering coward.”
And the Irishman fired another shot Nurmagomedov’s way on Saturday afternoon, this time taking aim at the Dagestan native and his team-mate Zubaira Tukhugov, who was part the group that cornered his good friend Artem Lobov days before the UFC 223 bus attack.
Alongside a picture of Tukhugov, McGregor wrote: “A true Chechen would never assist in a Dagestani led attack on another Chechen.
A true Chechen would never take orders from a Dagestani man
“A true Chechen would never take orders from a Dagestani man.
“This is treason. There is no worse than treason.”
As we’ve become accustomed to seeing down the years, McGregor is very strategic with his pre-fight taunts.
And he’ll no doubt have more up his sleeve ahead of his long-awaited return to the Octagon.
McGregor’s encounter with Nurmagomedov will be his first mixed martial arts bout since claiming the lightweight title, which he was relieved of in April, in the main event of UFC 205.
Understandably, there are concerns that the Dubliner will have Octagon rust when he sets foot inside the cage.
But according to his striking coach Owen Roddy, ‘The Notorious’’ hiatus won’t effect his performance on fight night.
“Other people are affected by that,” Roddy said during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “Even myself, I would have been very nervous if I hadn't fought. Conor's different.
“When he goes in there, it doesn't matter if he fought last week or two years ago, he gets in there and he's just always on point, always focused.
“He's just the person that he always is in there. Nothing changes that.
“The work will be ending outside the Octagon and Conor will still just focus on what he's doing in the cage.
“He's just got an unbelievable ability to over-perform in the Octagon."