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The former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor continues his war or words with UFC President Dana White.
On Friday Conor McGregor, the former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion, released screenshots of direct messages he claimed to be between him and UFC President Dana White. The messages seemed to detail McGregor’s resistance to being a potential replacement in a bout between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov as well as the prospect of McGregor fighting TUF 1 winner Diego Sanchez.
White responded to McGregor’s posts during his post-fight press conference at UFC 253 early on Sunday. White told reporters that McGregor violated something he referred to as the ‘man code’.
“Everybody here knows — even the ladies — this is some man code stuff,” said White. “It’s just something you don’t do. It’s one of the dirtiest things you can do, because we were just talking about Diego Sanchez. And Diego Sanchez is in there in a private conversation I was having with Conor.”
Hours later McGregor fired back.
Code was broke when you lied about me turning down fights mate. I said Justin in May and you went and said I did not want to fight. It’s not about Diego. Diego was a filler to get more fights in.
Also you have been involved in Manny talks the legal letters are there.
Stop lying.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 27, 2020
In a tweet he wrote: “Code was broke when you lied about me turning down fights mate. I said Justin [Gaethje] in May and you went and said I did not want to fight. It’s not about Diego. Diego was a filler to get more fights in. Also you have been involved in Manny [Pacquiao] talks the legal letters are there. Stop lying”
In addition to being accused of breaking some code, McGregor seems to have taken issue with White saying he had “no idea” about the prospect of the Irish fighter taking on the Filipino boxing legend.
News broke last week that McGregor was in ‘serious talks’ to return to the boxing ring; somewhere he has not competed since losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his pro boxing debut in August 2017.
This summer McGregor announced his retirement from MMA. The previous winter the Dubliner had claimed that he was going to have a very active 2020. He seemed to live up to those claims by taking on Donald Cerrone back in January.
The fight with Cerrone, at UFC 246, ended in a quick TKO win for the ‘Notorious’ one. This was his first fight since losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a bitter contest back in October 2018. Before that fight, McGregor hadn’t fought inside a cage since beating Eddie Alvarez for the 155 lb at UFC 205 in November 2016.
Lately McGregor’s name has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Earlier this month he was accused of exposing himself and sexually assaulting a woman on the French island of Corsica. McGregor had been staying in that part of the world on a yacht with his family, ahead of a charity race.