Michael Chandler has mocked UFC rival Conor McGregor over his "baby hands" as the pair move closer to finally announcing their highly-anticipated grudge fight.
The former world champion lightweights have both bulked up ahead of their showdown, which will signal the end of The Ultimate Fighter Season 31, and they got physical in an altercation while filming the show. McGregor was enraged when his close friend and teammate Lee Hammond lost after a dominant performance and got into the cage with Chandler where they went back-and-forth.
But it boiled over when McGregor branded Chandler a "Bellator thick" and pushed him in the face, causing the pair to square up. UFC president Dana White got in the way, preventing a premature fight between the duo, but their feud has continued on social media after the episode aired, even though it was filmed months ago.
"Look at how small Conor McGregor's hands are," Chandler wrote on Twitter. "That’s probably the biggest reason I barely felt the push. Much bigger muscles these days… But still the same TINY hands. I will say… I hadn’t spent a lot of time around Conor before the show.
"But that was the first thing I noticed - disproportionately small hands... Like the rest of his body, lots of inflammation and puffiness…but even with the puffiness…very small hands, like a newborn baby’s hands."
Chandler continued to mock McGregor in subsequent tweets, interacting with fans who shared memes about the Irishman's hands. He shared a photo of 'XXS' gloves that he jokingly claimed were from the UFC equipment team, and when one fan joked that he had sausage fingers, he replied: "Yes…I have very large, son of a carpenter’s hands. Unlike Conor’s."
What have you made of Conor McGregor's behaviour on The Ultimate Fighter so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Interestingly, McGregor's hands have been a topic of discussion at multiple points during this season of The Ultimate Fighter. When he brought in Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson as a guest coach, the pair joked about the size of the Irishman's fists, although Thompson was clearly more impressed than Chandler.
In bonus footage released by ESPN after the airing of the episode, the duo can be seen discussing their series of hand injuries, with McGregor showing off that he had pins put in his hand. And Thompson noted the size of his fists, saying 'look at the freaking, what the f***? I've got little girly hands."
And in this week's episode while contestants on the show are having a meal in the house and discussing the push incident, veteran Roosevelt Roberts noted that "you know Conor's got these big a** hands, big a** brick-layer hands."
