UFC president Dana White has commented on the ongoing Twitter feud between former two-division champion Conor McGregor and current lightweight titleholder Khabib Nurmagomedov after the verbal jabs have reached new lows.
White issued a statement to the media calling the behavior between the two “unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, April 3, McGregor came after Nurmagomedov on social media by mocking his religion and making derogatory comments about Nurmagomedov’s wife. Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, fired back with a photo of McGregor and an alleged mistress while commenting on the rape allegations against the Irishman.
Now, White is hoping to intervene.
“I am aware of the recent social media exchange between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor,” Dana White said, via a UFC press release. “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.”
That didn’t stop McGregor, however.
Shortly after Dana White’s comments, McGregor was once again taking shots at Nurmagomedov’s wife.
If the two men don’t stop their ongoing feud, the UFC could step in and hand out punishment for violating the promotion’s Code of Conduct, as Bloody Elbow notes. The Code of Conduct reads:
“Fighters shall conduct themselves in accordance with commonly accepted standards of decency, social convention, and morals, and fighters will not commit any act or become involved in any situation or occurrence or make any statement which will reflect negatively upon or bring disrepute, contempt, scandal, ridicule or disdain to the fighter or the UFC.
“Derogatory or offensive conduct, including without limitation insulting language, symbols, or actions about a person’s ethnic background, heritage, color, race, national origin, age, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.”
Let’s hope the two men can move on from the insults so that it doesn’t have to get to that point and so that things don’t continue to get uglier.
Nurmagomedov has not fought since October 6, 2018, when he scored a fourth-round submission victory over McGregor.
With his win over McGregor, Khabib advanced to 27-0 in his professional career. His 27 consecutive wins gives him the longest winning streak in all of mixed martial arts. Khabib first won the vacant lightweight championship on April 7, 2018 at UFC 223 when he scored a dominant decision win over Al Iaquinta in Brooklyn, New York. He became the first Russian to win a UFC title. The submission victory over McGregor was his first title defense. McGregor has also not competed since the loss.
