Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov Twitter war turns ugly

The rivalry between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor continues to grow uglier.

In a series of social media posts made over the past several days, the feud between the UFC lightweight champion and McGregor has escalated to a disconcerting degree, with McGregor hurling controversial remarks at Nurmagomedov’s family and Nurmagomedov, in turn, attacking McGregor over recent reports of the Irishman being under investigation for sexual assault allegation in Ireland.

Things started out standard enough, with McGregor responding to an Instagram post on March 30 that commemorated Nurmagomedov’s 2018 victory over Al Iaquinta at UFC 223, which won the undefeated Dagestani fighter the UFC lightweight title.

Just hours later, Nurmagomedov responded to McGregor.

The back-and-forth settled there for a few days, until McGregor reignited it on Tuesday night with a series of personal insults hurled at Nurmagomedov and his family, two of which were subsequently deleted but can be seen below (H/T MiddleEasy).

The controversial nature of McGregor’s comments set off Nurmagomedov’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, but McGregor ultimately continued his tirade Wednesday morning by referencing the recent lifetime ban of UFC heavyweight Ruslan Magomedov by USADA.

Just hours later, Nurmagomedov responded again — and this time he didn’t pull any punches. Nurmagomedov referred to McGregor as a “rapist” and posted a leaked photo of McGregor and 26-year-old Terri Murray, who has claimed to Irish news outlets that McGregor is the father of her child stemming from an alleged 2017 interaction.

That final salvo led UFC president Dana White to issue a statement to Yahoo’s Kevin Iole explaining that “the ongoing situation has escalated to a level that is unacceptable” and stating that the UFC is “taking the necessary steps to reach out to both athlete camps and this situation is being addressed by all parties internally.”

UPDATE: McGregor has responded.

UPDATE: Khabib has responded.