Off the back of a heated feud this evening between himself and Conor McGregor, Derry fan-favorite, Paul Hughes has claimed the UFC star’s opinion on him no longer “holds weight” following a brash outburst in which the Dubliner questioned the former’s Irish identity.
Engaged in a bitter dispute on social media today, Hughes was the subject of a host of disparaging posts by McGregor this morning, who labelled him a “c*nt” for speaking with arch-rival, Khabib Nurmagomedov following his PFL: Road to Dubai headliner this month, as well as calling into question his Irish identity.
And responding to the Crumlin striker’s outlandish comments, former Cage Warriors featherweight champion, Hughes questioned where the former was getting his comments from — pointing to their cordial relationship in recent years.
“@TheNotoriousMMA (Conor McGregor) always said u were the goat, paid homage at every opportunity,” Paul Hughes posted on social media in response. “But coming at my Irish identity just shows where your head is at.”
Paul Hughes claims Conor McGregor’s opinion holds “no weight” anymore
And in the hours since, McGregor has continued his tirade against Hughes, who spoke with Ariel Helwani for Uncrowned this evening, claiming the Dubliner’s comments or “opinion” of him hold zero weight anymore.
“Yeah, well look, I mean, I appreciate how you’ve kind of addressed that as being a (0:41) sensitive thing and I can speak about it how I want,” Paul Hughes said. “It’s actually not, like, I wasn’t offended at all. And, you know, now a lot of people in Ireland, especially in the north of Ireland will be like, couldn’t be any more deeply offended as the thing he said, but I’m not actually offended or didn’t take it personally at all because it sounds bad, but it’s just seems like it’s another day in his life of being just tweeting madness.
You know, it’s not like I seen that and went, oh, you know, I can’t believe he said this about me.” Paul Hughes continued. “I think it’s just another day in the life for him. And I don’t, I just don’t hold weight to his opinion anymore as to these sorts of things. And it’s kind of a sad thing to say that, but that’s actually just the reality of how I felt.
In fact, I kind of just laughed at it when I seen it,” Paul Hughes explained. “It’s not something I’ve been thinking about all day and going, oh, this and my identity and this and that. It’s like, yeah, initially I was like, don’t come, don’t come with my identity. Like, that’s ridiculous. But then I was just like, this guy, he’s on one. Like, I just don’t care, you know? But yeah.”
