Conor McGregor fires back at “bum” Eddie Alvarez

Last month, MMA veteran Eddie Alvarez shocked the world as he knocked out Rafael dos Anjos in just minutes to become the UFC lightweight champion. Alvarez hadn’t been champion for more than 24 hours before he decided to call out featherweight champion Conor McGregor, who was already slated for a UFC 202 fight with Nate Diaz on August 20th.

Not only did Alvarez call for a fight with the winner of McGregor vs. Diaz II, he referred to the fight as an “easier fight”, which likely didn’t sit well with the featherweight champion. This month, in a separate interview, Alvarez once again called for a fight with McGregor, insinuating that the featherweight champ was scared to fight him.

McGregor fired back at Alvarez in an interview with MMAFighting:

“Right now there’s a new champion, he’s a bum as well,” McGregor said of Alvarez. “He’s a novice. He’s a novice on his feet, swinging shots, overhands. He just is a wrestler with an overhand as well. They’re novices where I come from and that’s the truth of it, so we’ll see about him. We’ll see.

“Like I said, there’s a lot of options. They’re all begging for it. They’re all begging in their own unique way, but make no mistake, it’s begging. They are all begging for this. They’re all begging for what Nate got. They look at Nate, who went from 20-and-20 to now he’s talking big money, so they’re all on their hands and knees begging for this. So like I said, I’ll have this fight [at UFC 202], I’ll sit down with Mr. (Dana) White and the new owners … and then we’ll figure it out from there.”

While there has been no word as to who Alvarez will defend his title against first, the UFC has opted to book Rafael dos Anjos vs. Tony Ferguson, ruling out an immediate rematch for dos Anjos. This leaves Khabib Nurmagomeodv to challenge for the title, as well as potentially Nate Diaz, if he once again defeats McGregor at UFC 202.