'My old belts': Conor McGregor's tweet about Islam Makhachev after UFC 280 goes viral

Former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor made a series a tweets about fighting, a day after Islam Makhachev clinched the UFC lightweight title with a win over Charles Oliveira at UFC 280. McGregor memorably fought former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018, which is still known as one of the most iconic rivalries in the sport. Interestingly, Makhachev comes from Khabib’s training camp and is also being coached by the former champion.

Meanwhile, McGregor put out a picture of the freshly-minted champion Makhachev, alongside featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and made a huge claim. “My two old belts. On two little ticks. This fight does 10 buys,” McGregor said. The Irish MMA superstar held the UFC featherweight title from 2015 to late 2016,  after becoming a two-division champion. He also held the lightweight title from September 2016 to 2018.

The iconic Conor McGregor vs Khabib Nurmagomedov rivalry

After McGregor had to vacate the lightweight championship in April 2018 due to inactivity, Khabib defeated Al Iaquinta at an event to claim the undisputed title. Later that year, the MMA world witnessed one of the biggest contests in the history of UFC with much pre-fight hype. However, Khabib went on to defeat McGregor with a neck crank in the fourth round of the main event at UFC 229.

While McGregor started making less appearances in UFC due to other business ventures, Khabib announced his retirement with an undefeated record of 29-0-0 in 2020. Since then, he has been an active coach with American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez. He frequently corners and coaches UFC stars like Makhachev and Belal Muhammad who featured at UFC 280 among others.

On the other hand, McGregor made his last UFC appearance in July 2021, for his second fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. He suffered a major leg injury at the event and took time off for recovery. He is currently working on his upcoming acting venture with Jake Gyllenhaal in the remake of the 1989 movie Road House. 

'Fighting is easier than making movies': Conor Mcgregor

Meanwhile, in his second tweet of the day, McGregor claimed ‘Fighting is easier than making movies’. “Shots they don’t even see. It’s well documented that it takes multiple days with multiple replays post fight for the industry to even grasp all of the shots they’ve just seen with my fights. Truth,” McGregor added. One of the tweets by McGregor read, "I’m feeling crazy confident. Calm. Disattached from emotion. Aware of what I must do and making it happen. Visualizing. I see it all. Clear. This movie wraps, I’m back. I’ll have multiple fights completed by the time this movie even releases". Here's a look at the tweets by the former two-division UFC champion.