Conor McGregor has told his old rival Nate Diaz that he will "smash his jaw" if the American tries to encroach upon his acting territory.
The Irishman was recently filming his big screen debut in the remake of 'Road House' alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, and appears to have embraced Hollywood after years of resistance. He shared a recent photo of himself in the octagon ahead of UFC 264, when he knocked out Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone within a minute, claiming that is how he feels when he's acting.
And after Diaz shared a clip from the Adam Sandler film Big Daddy in which a character espouses the virtues of smoking marijuana and putting rum in your drink to children, McGregor hit back. He told the former lightweight challenger he will "smash his jaw" if he attempts to steal his thunder in the Hollywood world.
"Stay out of my acting game I'll smash your jaw in," McGregor wrote in a tweet which he has since, as usual, deleted. Diaz didn't let the message go without firing out a response of his own, asking the Irishman: "Why are you acting like you can still fight? Actor."
McGregor is currently enjoying his time outside of the octagon as he nurses a broken leg, and is planning to return to action in the early part of this year. He has been eyeing up a third bout with Diaz ever since their second one at UFC 202 in the summer of 2016, but that seems less likely than ever now that the American has left the promotion.
Diaz is now planning to pursue boxing, and while he does plan on facing McGregor again one day, he won't be back in the UFC's cage for the foreseeable future. Speaking about the possible fight earlier this month following his win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 279, Diaz declared his interest in that fight, once he has pursued his boxing dream.
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"I would love to fight him for the third time," he explained. "I’ve wanted to the whole time. They put Conor on a big pedestal and he made a lot of s*** happen for a lot of different people in the fight game. Also the UFC as a team did. They made all that happen. There’s no doubt in my mind that me and him are going to finish that off and that’s for sure one of my biggest goals."
McGregor and Diaz first met at UFC 196 when the Irishman was due to face Rafael Dos Anjos in an historic fight for his second world title at lightweight. However, the Brazilian pulled out and Diaz was drafted in, with McGregor skipping 155lb and moving up 25lb from his last outing to take on his rival.
Diaz defeated McGregor by rear naked choke in the second after a routine first round in which he was hit with some of the Irishman's biggest shots, leading to a record-breaking rematch that summer. McGregor managed to eek out the majority decision in that bout, seemingly setting up a trilogy which has yet to be settled.
