UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski got one over on Conor McGregor when he used the Irishman's old quote against him after he mocked his drawing power.
McGregor is the former featherweight and lightweight champion, and during a late-night barrage of tweets he mocked the two current title holders; Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev. The pair are set to do battle in February with the Australian moving up to 155lb to challenge his Russian rival, similar to McGregor in 2016, but the Irishman claimed the fight would perform poorly.
And Volkanovski took to Twitter to throw subtle shade at the former champion of his division, reminding fans McGregor had previously said "winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners," to which the Irishman had little by way of response. McGregor even admitted that he was "happy" for Volkanovski, and offered him advice going forward.
"Just watching and monitoring mate," McGregor wrote. "That’s all. Happy for you in the spot to be honest. I’ll be back. This is not over. You know." Volkanovski responded by noting that there was respect between the pair, before declaring that he "will be happy to welcome you back."
At that point, McGregor decided to offer some wisdom to Volkanovski, advising that he use his experience as a high level rugby league player to move up the weights in the promotion. At one point the Australian weighed 210lb when he played the sport, meaning that he is well able to manoeuvre in athletic competition when he piles on the pounds.
Do you agree with Conor McGregor's advice to Alexander Volkanovski? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
"And we dance on," McGregor wrote. "Good. I was in your exact spot one time don’t forget. 145 coming up. Good luck. I’d say go heavier. Rugby days. Be a bowling ball. That’s how I’d do it as you. Your condition right now as I see it, I don’t know. But bowling ball style for you for best chance. Aim to head butt the chest cavity."
Volkanovski has had previous with McGregor, and admits he isn't keen to rank him among the greatest featherweights of all time given his lack of world title defences. The Irishman won interim gold in July 2015 when he was forced to face Chad Mendes instead of Jose Aldo, and dethroned the Brazilian that December.
“You need [title] defences, that’s the thing," he said during a podcast appearance back in April. "I’m going to give him respect, the dude can fight, but again, I feel like I’ve definitely done a lot more than him so out of all the champions, I’d say he would have to be at the bottom of the list. He ain’t going to like that but whatever."
