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Was Usman’s account really hacked as it appears, or was the welterweight champion’s manager behind the vile and racist messages being sent on UFC 246 fight night?
UFC 246 was a pretty big night news wise as MMA’s biggest moneymaker resecured his position at the top of the sport. But throughout the event there were some unusual substories percolating in the background, like welterweight champion Kamaru Usman’s Twitter account getting hacked.
The account spat out over the top racist tweets for hours over the night, followed by links to the hacker’s Discord chat and then screenshots alleging to show Usman’s bank accounts. It all seemed like a pretty cut and dry security breach case, but after his 40 second win over Donald Cerrone, Conor McGregor spoke about the situation and opined he wasn’t so sure it was what everyone claimed it was.
”I’m skeptical of that,” McGregor said during the post fight press conference. “Because one came through early and it had all the hallmarks of that little f**king weasel, Ali [Abdelaziz, Dominance MMA manager]. They give him control of the accounts, he had Frankie’s account, he had Henry’s account.”
“This has been going on a while, he gets it and then writes something through their thing. And I’ve been in discussions with some of these athletes to come on board [Paradigm, McGregor’s management team] and whatever, help em out and that and I know exactly what happens. And the way the first one was written, I knew exactly where it came from. And then all of a sudden a bit heavier one and then it became a hack job.”
Several of the tweets got pretty nasty talking about McGregor’s longtime partner Dee Devlin, so the potential for a violent over-reaction was there. But Conor took it all in stride.
”Whatever. I don’t know what’s going on tonight, it’s a bit of a wierd night wasn’t it, the two boys doing mad stuff. I don’t know. Whatever. All the best to them.”
UFC president Dana White also commented on the hack and said the first thing he did when he saw the tweets was contact McGregor to avoid any trouble in the Arena.
“I called Conor,” White said. “I said, ‘He got hacked. So don’t say anything, don’t do anything.’ Usman and Ali are sitting right in front of where Conor comes out and does the thing. So the first thing I did was tell Conor that, and he didn’t believe it. He doesn’t believe he got hacked. But we had no problems.”
McGregor made it clear that he didn’t think the business involved Abdelaziz’s client Usman.
”I don’t think it was Usman,” McGregor said. “I don’t know. I don’t care. I don’t care. I actually don’t care. It just had all the hallmarks of your man that’s done it in the past multiple times. I didn’t even see it originally. Well I saw one originally and then Dana sent a message to me, ‘Oh this is happening.’ But I didn’t see the rest of them, just the first one and it had all the hallmarks of your man logging in and doing his thing like he’s done with all the other fighters that he represents. This has been happening for years. I’ve been dealing with this a long time so I know exactly where the source is … but whatever.”
Abdelaziz also manages Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje, two fighters whose social media accounts have been used to throw some of the harshest trash talk at the Irish sports star. All in an attempt to get McGregor to fight Ali’s clients? If that’s the case, McGregor will fight any of them, including Usman.
”Let’s deal with them,” he said. “Let’s do it. I’m more than ready. I enjoy this division. I like this division. I don’t think they’re that big.”