- Conor McGregor appeared to mock the death of Khabib Nurmagomedov's father from COVID.
- The Irishman has since deleted the rogue tweet that attracted backlash from the MMA industry.
- The UFC commentator and former champ Dan Cormier called it a "cry for help."
Conor McGregor's vile, angry tweet seemingly about the death of Khabib Nurmagomedov's father was a "cry for help," according to UFC commentator and former two-weight champion Dan Cormier.
The Irishman came apart when he lost back-to-back lightweight fights to the American Dustin Poirier, breaking his leg after one round of fighting at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas earlier this month.
He then delivered a wild, disturbing, and frenzied rant as he sat on the canvas with his back to the Octagon fence. McGregor was even heard issuing death threats to Poirier.
At the time, McGregor's old rival Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired from the cage unbeaten in 2020 with a flawless 29-0 record, said: "Good always defeats evil," after seeing the 33-year-old lose.
Weeks later, after a six-month medical suspension from fighting as he recovers from his injury, McGregor continues to court controversy.
The MMA fighter tweeted, then deleted, a post that appeared to reference the death of Nurmagomedov's father Abdulmanap. The veteran coach passed away last year aged 57 after almost three months after contracting COVID-19.
"COVID is good and father is evil," McGregor said on Twitter. The post has since been deleted.
Reacting on ESPN, Cormier — a friend of Nurmagomedov — said McGregor stepped beyond the line of what is acceptable, even in the murky world of combat-sports trash talk.
"I get shock value and I get trying to get people to talk but way too far," Cormier said. "To the point that I immediately called Khabib last night. Asking him if he's OK after having to see that, especially with no ability to do anything about it again.
"He spoke to my kids at my wrestling program the other day and said he was never happier than when he got to fight McGregor on the day. Because for so long, he wanted to get his hands on Conor and beat Conor up."
Cormier said Nurmagomedov can no longer get his hands on McGregor as he's retired. "So he just has to kind of swallow that."
He continued: "When you're dealing with death and COVID and all these other things that we've dealt with over the last year and a half, that's all off-limits.
"We talked about wives and families being off-limits, but when you're talking about a man's everything — Khabib's dad was his everything — and you're talking about him being gone today due to something that has been so terrible for our entire world, you use that in a sense to get back?"
Cormier said McGregor's comments are not being done in the heat of the moment, like at a media event, or a face-off. But, rather, he has time to process what he's doing as they're done online. This is "disturbing," according to Cormier.
He said: "This was done weeks after the fight, so it feels like it was thought of and it was thought through for Conor to tweet something like that.
"Absolutely crossed the line. I think when stuff like that is being said, it's a cry for help.
"Conor has all the money in the world, he has all the fame, but now when you start to dig at that level, it's like somebody needs to get to McGregor and help him to start to kind of re-shift his mind and his focus and get him back to a better place. It's unfortunate."