“Despite his retirement from the UFC, Conor McGregor’s knack for provoking his rivals remains strong. Recently, Khamzat Chimaev criticized the Irishman, calling him a ‘chicken’ due to a social media post that McGregor has since deleted.”
McGregor called Chimaev, one of the brightest prospects emerging in MMA, ‘rat lip’ in a comment on an Instagram post shared by UFC.
Chimaev, who has been likened to Khabib Nurmagomdeov, gained huge plaudits after two wins at Fight Island which set a UFC record for the quickest turnaround between victories.
UFC’s latest star Khamzat Chimaev has taken a shot at Conor McGregor on social media
The Chechen-born fighter, 26, used a chicken emoji in response to a comment by McGregor
Since deleted, McGregor commented on a UFC video of Chimaev and called him ‘rat lip’
The UFC shared a video of Chimaev’s exploits on the island but McGregor could not help himself.
McGregor commented ‘rat lip’ under the video which is similar to the language he used in the build-up to his fight against Nurmagomedov in 2018.
While the comment was swiftly deleted, McGregor, who boasts 36.7m followers on Instagram, was caught out by fans who screenshotted the comment.
Chimaev’s irritation extended to Twitter as he proposed fighting McGregor as his ‘dessert’
McGregor retired earlier this year from the UFC but continues to be on the lips of fight fans
Chimaev wants UFC President Dana White (pictured) to help fix a bout against McGregor
That screenshot was then widely circulated and made its way to Chimaev who, as expected, was less than impressed by McGregor’s latest antics.
In a social media post of his own, Chimaev captioned a photo of himself at Fight Island with John Phillips in a chokehold submission.
The caption included a direct tag for McGregor and had the chicken emoji and the ‘shush’ emoji, a clear indicator he had seen the ‘rat lip’ jibe.
But he was not done there as Chimaev then moved across to Twitter to call on UFC President Dana White to coax McGregor out of retirement to take him on.
Chimaev, 26, wrote: ‘@TheNotoriousMMA Tab machine king chicken heart @danawhite i’m hungry give me dessert.’
'I'm not Mayweather or McGregor, I want to help people': Khamzat Chimaev after his 2nd UFC victory #UFCFightIsland @KChimaev pic.twitter.com/eKlvp4AUM8
— RT Sport (@RTSportNews) July 26, 2020
Chimaev stole the show at Fight Island as he produced a masterclass to defeat John Phillips
Likened to Khabib Nurmagomedov, there are expectations Chimaev is the sport’s next big star
While Chimaev and McGregor have had few dealings with each other given the timelines of their careers, a feeling of bad-blood has preceded their latest social media jibes.
After his second win, having dropped from middleweight to welterweight, Chimaev brought up McGregor when asked how he would spend his bonus fee.
‘I do this not only for me, I do this for everybody I can help,’ he said.
‘I don’t want to be like Mayweather and McGregor, to show my money or something like that. I want to help people.’
