Want Conor McGregor back? UFC champ says it will take begging, calls Nurmagomedov dog (expletive)

Dana White thinks he’ll have Conor McGregor back fighting in the UFC by this summer. If that’s to be the case, it sounds like McGregor has some stipulations.

For starters, the UFC’s lightweight champ is asking to be paid what he’s worth … and to be begged to return.

McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) started the new year out in a feisty mood today with a brief Twitter rant that started with a knock on Khabib Nurmagomedov (25-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC), who is fresh off a dominant display against Edson Barboza (19-5 MMA, 13-5 UFC) in the UFC 219 co-main event. Nurmagomedov won with a pair of 30-24s and a 30-25 which MMADecisions.com reported was the most lopsided three-round fight in UFC history.

“That Dagestani was dog s–t the other night you’s are all nuts,” McGregor wrote on Twitter this morning. “Game full of sloppy bums asking to be slept. Pay me my worth and Kings back.”

The Dagestani, of course, is Nurmagomedov, who returned after a 13-month layoff and stayed unbeaten at UFC 219 in Las Vegas with an outright tactical destruction of Barboza, a Brazilian feared for his striking.

McGregor went on to post his request for begging – though he didn’t specifiy just who he wants to beg him to fight again. That could mean prospective opponents. It could mean the UFC’s power-makers. It could mean White, the UFC’s president. It could even mean fans. But one way or another, McGregor seems to expect someone on bended knee.

“Truly truly truly get on your f–king knees and beg me,” McGregor posted. “Otherwise I don’t give a bollox. My whiskey is out this year and thats Diddy bread. And that’s Diddy bread on top of already Diddy bread. Now get your Diddy’s out and beg.”

Presumably, “Diddy bread” means money … and lots of it. McGregor, according to some reports, took in upwards of $100 million for his boxing match against Floyd Mayweather this past August, which was his only action of 2017.

After Nurmagomedov’s win over Barboza, he got a little callout from another key lightweight: interim champion Tony Ferguson (24-3 MMA, 14-1 UFC), who is recovering from surgery and presumably would be next in line to fight McGregor in a title unification bout.

Nurmagomedov said after UFC 219 he’s ready to take on either Ferguson or McGregor – or even fight both of them in the same night.

McGregor has not fought in MMA since he won the lightweight title against Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016. After that, he took time off for his longtime girlfriend to have their first child, then boxed Mayweather in what wound up being the No. 2 pay-per-view fight in history.

While he has been away from MMA, now pushing 14 months with no promise of when he might return other than White saying he hopes McGregor will be back by Summer 2018, Ferguson won the interim belt against Kevin Lee. But his return is a bit up in the air, as well, thanks to surgery in early December.

If McGregor sits back and waits, it’s possible Nurmagomedov could fight Ferguson for the interim title. Nurmagomedov said his preference would be to return to action in April, which might be enough time for Ferguson to heal. And the winner would then potentially be on White’s Summer 2018 timetable.

But there appears to be just one certainty in the UFC’s lightweight power scramble, and that’s that nothing ever really is certain.

For complete coverage of UFC 219, check out the UFC Events section of the site.