For MMA fans, watching a fight and screaming our lungs out while thumping the sofa is like an appointment with the therapist. Passions run high for anyone who follows MMA - be it fans or fighters, and one fighter who's made headlines many times for his whip-like tongue is Conor McGregor.
The double champ backs down from absolutely nobody, be it in the octagon or otherwise. We don't need reminding that it's been a while since we've seen him put on the 4-ouncers but the Irishman's recent back-and-forth with rap icon 50 Cent has hooked eyeballs.
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It all started during one of the McGregor-Mayweather press conferences last year, when the MMA superstar called 50 Cent a "b****" for throwing his weight behind Floyd Mayweather. The New York-based rapper took his time throwing a counter, but when he finally did a few days ago, he said Conor McGregor is "talented for a white boy", but black athletes have "superior genes".
McGregor fired back on Women's Day, with this post:
Fitty came back even stronger, suggesting that McGregor has cheated on his girlfriend of 10 years, Dee Devlin. This beef doesn't seem like it will die down anytime soon, so until the next swing either takes at the other, we rewind to some other memorable fighter-celebrity feuds:
#5 Matt Brown vs Snoop Dogg
Dana White loves his pet projects, the most recent being his Tuesday Night Contender Series, which produced breakout star Sean O'Malley. The sole purpose of the show was to discover exciting fighters who loved to scrap and make the fans jump out of their seats.
The show had an alternate commentary segment run by UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Hall and Snoop Dogg. Anybody who's seen the show and understands fighting will know that it must have been torturous for fighters to slug it out the way they did. Which is why many UFC fighters were incensed by Snoop Dogg's laid back, almost clowning style of calling the fights. One among them was no-BS UFC veteran Matt Brown, who said that he would actually punch Snoop if he saw him. The Doggfather didn't respond to this, but let's wait and see if he changes his tone next season.
#4 Randy Couture vs Steven Seagal
If you recollect carefully, the Mayweather-McGregor fight's seed was planted with what seemed like a whimsical, typical alpha male call out by the UFC superstar. But we all saw the Frankenstein's monster it became.
A few years ago, a faint heartbeat of something similar was heard but thankfully, it never drew breath. In 2012, American sportswriter Jay Glazer asked MMA legend Randy Couture about the possibility of a comeback, to which he chuckled that he would consider it only if it was against (once upon a time)action movie star Steven Seagal.
In true movie screen mysterious martial arts sage fashion, Seagal said that he would face the UFC's first two-division champion as long as there were no witnesses. Did he say that so as to not reveal some hidden, age-old, pinky finger death punch? Or was it because he didn't want to get his backside handed to him on camera? Whatever the reason, Couture didn't let it get a rise out of him and laughed the whole thing off, saying that his initial remarks that sparked off the whole TRP bait were just horseplay.
#3 Rampage Jackson vs The Game
No, not Triple H, we're talking about the rapper from Compton. In 2010, Rampage beat out The Game for the role of BA Baracus in "The A-Team". The Dr. Dre pupil, bitter because he thought he performed better in the auditions, taunted the former UFC Light Heavyweight champion about his defeat at the hands of Rashad Evans.
The violent gentleman that he is, Rampage laid out quite magnanimous terms to the former gang member - he would battle rap The Game if he would step into the cage with him. Mystery of mysteries, there was no word from The Game after that.
#2 Ronda Rousey vs Justin Beiber
She may not be the queen of MMA anymore, but Ronda Rousey's exploits will be highlighted in history, even those outside the cage. Especially that time she came tantalizingly close to ripping Justin Beiber's arms off his twiggy torso.
An incovenient truth it may be, but every teenage girl has at some point, dreamt about meeting the Biebs and getting his autograph. At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Rousey's younger sister Julia thought she would get to live out this dream when she spotted the Canadian teeny pop sensation. Possibly because she was too shy to go ask him herself, Ronda walked upto Bieber and asked him for an autograph. The multi-platinum selling "hearthrob" blew her off and walked away, leaving Julia in tears and Ronda in disgust.
When Bieber heard about this in November 2015, he apologized to Rousey, but in the same interview, dissed her for getting knocked out by Holly Holm. He followed that up by slinging mud at her once more when she was finished by Amanda Nunes. The legendary women's MMA pioneer didn't deign to respond, but speaking on behalf of all fight fans, we wished she had, preferably with an armbar.
#1 Nate Diaz vs Justin Beiber
While the thought of Justin Beiber getting twisted into a pretzel by Ronda Rousey sounds like fun, getting Stockton slapped and then choked out by Nate Diaz sounds even better.
It managed to only materialize in Nate Diaz's twitter post, which was in response to Bieber calling the former's fighting style "terrible" after he handed Conor McGregor his first UFC loss. Here's the post:
Imagine what was running through Justin Beiber's mind when the two bumped into each other at a nightclub a few days later? Well, we think the answer lies in the fact that the Biebs extended an olive branch at light speed. Nate Diaz, who is used to settling his disputes by lacing up the gloves, was tickled when he heard this called a "beef". Here's one of the interviews where he describes the whole situation:
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