UFC president Dana White will typically chalk up trash talk as part of the fight business but the recent insults shared between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov have apparently gone over the line.
Over the past 24 hours, McGregor and Nurmagomedov have exchanged some rather nasty messages on Twitter.
McGregor started his tirade by targeting Nurmagomedov’s wife while saying ‘your wife is a towel, mate’ with a photo of the undefeated Russian at his wedding. McGregor later deleted the message.
Nurmagomedov then responded with a tweet of his own on Wednesday where he referenced recent allegations of sexual assault against McGregor based on a report from the New York Times.
In the past, White has typically shied away from telling fighters what they can or cannot say in the promotion of a fight but it appears these latest exchanges have forced him to intervene.
“I am aware of the recent social media exchange between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor,” White wrote in a statement to Yahoo! Sports. “The ongoing situation has escalated to a level that is unacceptable.
“As such, we are taking the necessary steps to reach out to both athlete camps and this situation is being addressed by all parties internally.”
Technically any behavior deemed detrimental to the UFC falls under the promotion’s code of conduct policy, which could lead to punishment being dished out to the athletes.
That said, based on White’s comment it doesn’t appear the UFC is expected to sanction McGregor or Nurmagomedov based on what they’ve said but it appears both athletes will receive a call from the promotion over recent online behavior.
The rhetoric between McGregor and Nurmagomedov has definitely gotten personal in the past as well but it seems this latest altercation finally caught the UFC’s attention.
