Conor McGregor: Theory behind Irishman’s social media outbursts emerges

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Conor McGregor’s recent outbursts on social media have puzzled concerned fans of the Irishman, but the UFC star is “lashing out” because he is still suffering from his back-to-back defeats to Dustin Poirier, according to Michael Bisping.

In a series of tweets that were quickly deleted, McGregor posted a picture of Poirier and his daughter and also took aim at the American’s wife, a theme that has continued following the pair’s tense build-up to their meeting at UFC 264.

McGregor also appeared to mock long-time rival Khabib Nurmagomedov over the death of his father to Covid-19. The Irishman broke his leg as he suffered his latest defeat to Poirier in the third leg of their trilogy fight in July and the 33-year-old is still recovering from the brutal injury.

His social media activity as he undergoes his rehabilitation has been labelled as “classless” and “dangerous” and while UFC pundit Bisping did not condone his actions, he suggested McGregor’s tweets are linked to his recent defeats in the sport.

“For [Conor], right now, that’s the best way he can deal with losing these fights. I’m not making excuses for him, far from it, because I was at the receiving end of some of his bulls**t recently as well,” Bisping told MMAFighting.com.

“But I think for him to still believe - and I don’t have a relationship with him, we used to be somewhat friendly, we don’t talk anymore, so I’m not speaking from experience or anything like that, just speaking in general as a fighter - he has to believe in his mind that fight was competitive.

“He has to believe in his mind that he was going to turn it around in the second round if the leg hadn’t got broken. Because if he doesn’t do that, if he accepts ‘I was getting my ass kicked and I probably would have been finished,’ then it’s a chink in the armour. It’s starting to accept that I’m not one of the best in the world.”

McGregor suffered his leg break in the first round of his latest defeat to Poirier and was behind on all three of the official scorecards after one completed round.

UFC president Dana White has hinted at another rematch once McGregor has returned from the injury. “The fight didn’t get finished, you can’t have a fight finish that way,” he said. “Who knows how long Conor’s out? Poirier will do his thing until Conor’s ready.”

McGregor was also knocked out by Poirier in January, the first time the Irishman has been knocked out in his career, with the UFC appearing to poke fun at the defeat with the release of a new “sleepy McGregor” toy.