Conor McGregor is a master at getting under people’s skin and making them act out of turn, but his latest audio recording aimed at Artem Lobov is arguably his strangest one to date.
‘The Notorious’ has made a career out of making his adversaries emotional and has shown on multiple occasions why this is an effective strategy inside the cage. Both Jose Aldo and Dustin Poirier can attest to that, as both had incredible hatred for him leading into their bouts over half a decade ago.
In a social media post amidst his ongoing feud and legal trouuble with Artem Lobov, Conor McGregor shared an audio recording of him giggling before saying, “I can call you a rat,” to rile up the former MMA competitor (Unfortunately, Conor McGregor, in his style, deleted the post after a while).
‘The Russian Hammer’ requested McGregor be forced to take down a number of social media posts that he believed to be harassing and intimidating during their ongoing lawsuit. Still, the High Court recently rejected his plea.
Once friends, the relationship between the two combat sports athletes took a U-turn when Lobov sued his former SBG Ireland teammate for millions relating to the superstar’s uber-popular ‘Proper No. Twelve’ whiskey brand.
This caused McGregor to release a number of threats and posts about the brawler, which have been dominating the headlines in recent times. While the case is still open, it seems that the former two-division UFC champion will have his way and successfully defend the lawsuit brought against him by the 36-year-old.
Is Conor McGregor finished at the elite level of MMA?
While he has only won once in mixed martial arts since his iconic knockout victory over Eddie Alvarez all the way back in 2016, Conor McGregor still looks an elite competitor.
Although his intimidating aura has somewhat subsided, and he’s currently enduring a poor spell of three losses in his last four outings, the 34-year-old did show his qualities in both his most recent octagon appearances.
At UFC 257 and UFC 264, McGregor suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Dustin Poirier and hasn’t appeared in the sport since. Though he continues to be ridiculed by a large number of supporters, he put on a solid display and stung ‘The Diamond’ multiple times, proving he is capable of competing with the best.
His trilogy with Poirier ended in anti-climactic fashion at UFC 264. The irishman suffered a broken leg in the opening round of the contest and had to be stretchered out of the venue, huffing and cussing.