Conor McGregor has hit out at UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, mocking the ‘Nigerian Nightmare’ over his fighting style. Last month, McGregor revealed he had one eye on Usman’s 170lb crown in a cryptic tweet – which caught the champion’s eye.
“More power to him, anything is possible,” Usman said of a potential bout with McGregor a few days after beating Colby Covington at UFC 245. “A fight is a fight, anything can happen.
“But just being real, that’s a tremendous mismatch. I think I would hurt him really, really bad.”
McGregor then confirmed his interest in challenging the Hard Knocks 365 product for his title in an interview ahead with the Mac Life ahead of his UFC 246 showdown with Donald Cerrone, which takes place in Las Vegas early on Sunday morning.
He said: “I liked the look of that welterweight bout, the welterweight title fight.
Express Sport is reporting live from Las Vegas in association with Ohmbet UK, the UK’s No.1 MMA sportsbook. For the latest UFC 246 fight and odds more go here.
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And in typical fashion, he emphatically dismissed Usman’s insistence he’d crush his dream of becoming a three-weight world champion.
“How? By holding my f*****g leg?” McGregor asked. “Come on, man. This is not how to fight. I’ll show you how to fight. The people know what’s a scrap and what’s not a scrap. And that method of fighting is not.
“Although the last one [Usman vs. Colby Covington] was a good fight, they both stood, and they had their moments.
“But you know what way you’re trying to fight me.”
UFC 246: McGregor vs Cerrone fight card
Conor McGregor vs Donald Cerrone – welterweight bout
Holly Holm vs Raquel Pennington – men’s bantamweight bout
Maurice Greene vs Aleksei Oleinik – heavyweight bout
Claudia Gadelha vs Alexa Grasso – women’s strawweight bout
Diego Ferreira vs Anthony Pettis – lightweight bout
Prelims
Maycee Barber vs Roxanne Modafferi – women’s flyweight bout
Andre Fili vs Sodiq Yusuff – men’s featherweight bout
Drew Dober vs Nasrat Haqparast – lightweight bout
Grant Dawson vs Chas Skelly – men’s featherweight bout
JJ Aldrich vs Sabina Mazo – women’s flyweight bout
Askar Askarov vs Tim Elliott – men’s flyweight bout
Brian Kelleher vs Ode Osbourne – men’s bantamweight bout
Aleksa Camur vs Justin Ledet – light-heavyweight bout