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MMA

18th Oct 2016

Gegard Mousasi offers more detail about Conor McGregor’s bizarre Twitter knife threat

The most unlikely MMA feud of the year

Darragh Murphy

Never have we wanted access to Conor McGregor’s direct message history on Twitter more.

We’d always assumed that his inbox would largely be taken up with sporadic responses to his die-hard fans but it seems that there’s a lot more going on than first thought.

Last week top UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi revealed that ‘The Notorious’ had taken umbrage with some comments he made after his most recent victory, a TKO win over Vitor Belfort at UFC 204.

Mousasi’s remarks seemed relatively innocuous in the media room afterwards as he simply joked about McGregor’s tendency to boast and the ability of his fans to recognise legitimate fighters. Let’s be honest, a lot worse has been said about the polarising Irishman.

But the UFC featherweight champion didn’t appreciate the mention and, if Mousasi is to be believed, he quickly got in touch to express his annoyance.

And ‘The Dreamcatcher’ has since offered up more detail on the bizarre back-and-forth with McGregor, explaining how an apparent knife threat was sent his way.

“That ginger-headed fuck is retarded,” Mousasi said on Monday’s edition of the MMA Hour. “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 are you going to do with your 50kg?’ And then he was, I don’t know, he was philosophical or whatever the fuck he was writing, he was like, ‘a knife is lighter than a pound, it can cut from ear-to-ear,’ whatever the fuck he was writing.

“That guy is a bum. He’s a 50kg guy, what the fuck 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.”

It seems a rather strange interaction and one that led many to believe that Mousasi may have been duped by someone pretending to be McGregor but the Dutchman insisted that it was a genuine account.

But, as with everything else in his life, Mousasi is not all that concerned about the threat and is confident that ‘The Notorious’ wouldn’t say it to him in person.

“I don’t know what he was mentioning with the knife,” Mousasi added. “… 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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