Conor McGregor calls out Justin Gaethje after latter wins 'BMF' belt

Conor McGregor has yet to announce his return to the UFC, but now he wants Justin Gaethje fresh off the latter’s “BMF” title win Saturday over Dustin Poirier.

McGregor was originally set up to fight lightweight contender Michael Chandler at the conclusion of the current season of The Ultimate Fighter. However, with McGregor not in the USADA testing pool, and him going on Twitter blasting Gaethje, this is the new fight he wants, for now.

McGregor deleted a few tweets regarding Gaethje, but left one up.

“I KO him one shot. Guarantee it,” McGregor wrote on Twitter.

UFC President Dana White previously said McGregor would fight by the end of 2023, but there’s been no progress since those comments.

Gaethje knocked out Poirier in the second round with a high head kick, winning the symbolic “BMF” belt, previously held by the now-retired Jorge Masvidal.

Poirier won his second and third fights over McGregor to conclude their trilogy in 2021, lost to former champion Charles Oliveira and submitted Chandler before losing to Gaethje in the pair’s rematch.

McGregor wants Gaethje, apparently, and that caused a ripple effect. Chandler continually called out McGregor for delaying his return to the octagon.

“Just pee in the cup @TheNotoriousMMA it ain’t that complicated….” Chandler wrote to McGregor, who deleted a tweet.

Chandler also threw his hat in the ring for a rematch with Gaethje. The two fought in November of 2021 in the Fight of the Year.

“Well now @Justin_Gaethje has the #BMF belt – he has to defend it against a worthy adversary (thinking emoji),” Chandler wrote.

That’s when Poirier came in. On the surface, it’s amazing what McGregor did just using Twitter to get to Gaethje.

“Shut ya (expletive) up,” Poirier wrote to Chandler.

As far as McGregor getting Gaethje to fight him, the new BMF champ wasn’t impressed.

“I think he’s turned me down six times,” Gaethje said post-fight. “Usually, you have to lose to fight him … I don’t really care… I like to fight big fights; I like exciting things and it sounds pretty exciting to me. I’m not going to fight someone on steroids.”

On paper, the fight doesn’t make sense since Gaethje set himself up for a title shot against current champ Islam Makhachev or Oliveira after the two fight later this year.

Maybe down the line, Gaethje can fight McGregor for the lightweight title, but the former two-division champion from Ireland has yet to return to the octagon following breaking his leg against Poirier two years ago.

Anything with McGregor in the octagon would do numbers and there’s no doubt it’d be a violent affair against a brawler like Gaethje.