A little bit of a long game could be playing out on social media, as Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson have escalated their war of words.
While McGregor is still healing up from the broken leg he suffered against Dustin Poirier this summer, he’ll need an opponent upon his likely return sometime in 2022. With Poirier booked into a title fight in December, and McGregor, superstar or not, in need of a win before a shot at gold (should Poirier defeat Charles Oliveira), Ferguson seems like an ideal candidate.
The two have had their squabbles over the years, with Ferguson frequently referring to the former double champ as “McNuggets.” But things got a little more heated this week when “El Cucuy” accused McGregor of performance enhancing drug use.
Ferguson appeared to have sparked the latest exchange on Friday, responding to a comment about McGregor’s size in a recently circulated photo on Twitter. The full text of Ferguson’s tweet can be read below.
“Taking Growth Hormone Will Do That To Someone’s Build. You’re Mentally Weak & Your Leg Is Compromised. Your Fragile, Frail & Breakable. That GH Gon’ Make U Break Kid. Keep Pumpin’ Ya Chest Ya Cheat. Not The 1st Time God Punished You. You Like Picking On People And DJ’s? WTF Pussy.”
“GH” appeared to be in reference to HGH — human growth hormone. McGregor immediately clapped back. “Omg, god bless you kid. Mental basket sad case,” the Irish fighter replied, taking a dig at Ferguson’s well-documented mental health issues. “I am going to share your scared wife’s video that was sent to us of you screaming crying as you smash your house up. What a sad bastard u [sic] are. No brains. Empty head. Losing streak. No management. Wife sending us videos in fear.”
Whether McGregor’s camp is in possession of any such video is uncertain. However, the reference to Ferguson smashing up his house likely stems a February 2019 police visit to the the fighter’s home, during which an unidentified female informed officers that Ferguson had “broke apart the fireplace,” and believed someone had “put a [computer] chip in his leg.” Another witness told police Ferguson believed someone was living in the walls of his home.
Ferguson’s wife at one point took out a restraining order against him.
McGregor’s trash talk then took a somewhat darker turn, as he boasted that he’d kill Ferguson in the octagon.
“Me and you are fighting one day mate and I gonna end your life in there full of it,” McGregor wrote. “Sauce. Money. Power. I already won all the belts and the money in this game I just wanna kill one of yous rats in there now it’s the only thing left for me to do. And Watch me do it. Only on PPV.”
McGregor subsequently deleted the Tweet, but left another with the “Sauce. Money. Power.” message posted.
Ferguson (25-6) is currently on a three-fight losing skid, the first losing streak of his career. Most recently, he came up short against Beneil Dariush at UFC 262 in May.
McGregor lost both his fights this year, with each loss coming to Dustin Poirier, though the second was due to the broken leg sustained in the opening round of their rubber match. Prior to the Poirier fights, McGregor defeated Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 246 last year.
With both fighters on losing streaks, 2022 could finally see the two collide inside the octagon.
