Paul Hughes shares honest feelings on Conor McGregor beef after former UFC champ's 'not Irish' comments

Paul Hughes recently opened up about his ongoing beef with Conor McGregor after the latter made personal comments diminishing his Irish ethnicity. The PFL star explained why McGregor's comments were so poorly received and triggering.

The beef between Hughes and McGregor began after PFL Champions Series: Dubai, where 'Big News' lost a majority decision to Usman Nurmagomedov, who is the cousin of McGregor's bitter rival Khabib. After showing respect to the Dagestanis, McGregor went on a social media tirade blasting the PFL star and said he wasn't Irish because he resides in Northern Ireland.

During his latest appearance on The Craic, Hughes shared his honest feelings on his beef with McGregor. Hughest mentioned that the former two-division UFC champion's comments were very serious because of how deep-rooted they are from an Irish perspective:

"People were not happy. It really is, it's probably the most insulting thing that you can say to an Irishman from the north. That you're not Irish, that basically you're from up there, you're British or whatever. After everything that the North has been through, in particular, Derry, obviously where Bloody Sunday happened. To say you are not Irish up there is like, it's war. It is one of the worst things you could say... I addressed the situation. I tried to do it with class and respect."

Check out the full interview featuring Paul Hughes' comments regarding Conor McGregor below:

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Paul Hughes discusses whether he would forgive Conor McGregor

During the aforementioned interview, Paul Hughes also shared his take on whether he would forgive Conor McGregor for his 'not Irish' comments, should he ever decide to apologize in the future.

Hughes mentioned that it would take a long time before he could personally forgive McGregor because he doesn't want those comments be acceptable when referring to Northern Ireland:

"Maybe me personally, I could see that in the future but not right now because for my time. Because if somebody sees me going, 'Oh, it's alright. I forgive you', it's a deeply insulting thing to say to anyone where I come from."

Check out Conor McGregor's X posts toward Paul Hughes below: