With Conor McGregor set to return to the octagon for the first time in 5 years, the trash-talking has already begun. One of McGregor's former rivals recently fired a shot at him for sleeping in the gym.

Currently, McGregor is putting in a lot of effort into his training camp for his return fight against Max Holloway, scheduled for UFC 329 on July 11. An Instagram update from athleticfeats_05 displayed a section from his recent interview where he claimed, "we're living, breathing, and sleeping in the gym."

However, his former rival, Dustin Poirier, is not buying his story. During his appearance on the June 2 episode of the UFC on Paramount talk show, Poirier jibed at McGregor's "sleeping in the gym" claim, reminding him how he TKO-d him at UFC 257. 'The Diamond' said, “Speaking of sleeping…. Conor McGregor, I put you to sleep in Abu Dhabi, bud! Sleepy Mac.”

Even Poirier’s past performance against McGregor supports his claims. Poirier and McGregor fought 3 times, and Poirier won 2 of them.

McGregor earned the point by defeating Poirier in their first match, which took place in Tokyo in 2014. However, Poirier knocked him out in Abu Dhabi at UFC 257 and then won the third fight at UFC 264 via doctor's stoppage as McGregor suffered a gruesome shin bone break.

Even Jorge Masvidal, who was also there in the show, mocked McGregor by saying, “I don’t care. Sleeping in a garage every day doesn’t make you a car”. According to 'Gamebred', competing regularly against trained opponents makes you perfect.

But while Poirier and Masvidal chose to deride the highest PPV-selling fighter in the UFC's history, the reigning lightweight king, Islam Makhachev, viewed McGregor's return as a positive sign for the UFC.

Islam Makhachev's two cents on Conor McGregor’s UFC return

According to the majority of the fanbase, the UFC used to be much more exciting with McGregor competing actively. And the PPV sales figures of his fights back the claim. McGregor has been a part of the top three PPV-selling events in UFC history, and this is why Makhachev viewed his return as a positive for the promotion.

Speaking about McGregor's return, the reigning welterweight king told UFC on TNT Sports, “It's good, big name for our sport. But, he has a tough opponent. Max Holloway against Conor, I think Max can beat him”.

Although McGregor, the former UFC dual-champion, defeated Holloway in a featherweight bout in 2013, it has been 13 years since then. Holloway has evolved exceptionally in this time, claiming the UFC featherweight gold, along with the UFC BMF title. So, Makhachev's prediction about Holloway having enough to beat McGregor certainly carries weight.

However, with Poirier firing shots at McGregor, do you think fans might get the much-awaited fourth encounter between these two if 'Mystic Mac' decides to continue fighting after the Holloway fight?

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Souvik Roy