by Shaun Al-Shatti @shaunalshatti Oct 17, 2016, 5:00p
Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Gegard Mousasi turned some heads at the UFC 204 post-fight press conference when in the aftermath of his victory over Vitor Belfort, he criticized the approach of popular fighters like Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather whose self-promotion revolves largely around discussions about money and showing off "expensive stuff on Instagram."
And apparently McGregor was among those who caught wind of Mousasi's comments.
Mousasi said Monday on The MMA Hour that after his UFC 204 press conference rant, he received a surprising and somewhat threatening private message on Twitter from the reigning UFC featherweight champion.
"That ginger-headed f*ck is retarded," Mousasi said. "In the interview I mentioned, they were talking about respect or whatever, and then he texted me on Twitter. He messaged me, and I said, ‘what're you going to do with your 50kg?' And then he was, I don't know, he was philosophical or whatever the f*ck he was writing, he was like, ‘a knife is lighter than a pound, it can cut from ear-to-ear,' whatever the f*ck he was writing.
"That guy is a bum. He's a 50kg guy, what the f*ck is he going to do? I bet if he's face-to-face, he's not going to say that. But you know, Twitter gives some people courage."
The claims served as a doubling-down of sorts for Mousasi, who first shared the anecdote with FloCombat last week.
The immediate reaction to that story saw many people within the mixed martial arts community speculate that Mousasi may have been tricked by a dummy Twitter account impersonating the real McGregor, however Mousasi insisted that wasn't the case.
"No, it was him," Mousasi said. "It was his account."
McGregor hasn't commented on the matter, but considering the massive size difference between Mousasi, a 185-pound UFC contender, and McGregor, a featherweight slated to challenge for the 155-pound title at UFC 205, it goes without saying that neither of these two men will be meeting anytime soon inside the cage.
"I don't know what he was mentioning with the knife," Mousasi said. "... I don't have it with me now, but he put a lot of thought into his message. The guy has a lot of time, I don't know.
"I said ‘say it to my face,' but I bet he's not going to do that."
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