TJ DILLASHAW SAYS he’s not bothered about Conor McGregor’s description of him as a ‘twerp’ and a ‘snake in the grass’ on FOX Sports last week.
During an appearance on UFC Tonight, alongside Dillashaw’s team-mate Urijah Faber, McGregor suggested to Faber that the UFC bantamweight champion shouldn’t be trusted.
Dillashaw brushed off McGregor’s comments when he spoke to reporters in Las Vegas at UFC 191, claiming that the interim featherweight champion’s priority is financial gain, not improving himself as an athlete.
McGregor recently spent six weeks in Vegas filming a series of The Ultimate Fighter, in which he coached a team of European lightweights against Faber’s US team. The show premierEs tomorrow night on BT Sport 2 at 3am Irish time.
“I don’t think there’s a fighter that McGregor doesn’t have beef with these days. It was cool, he’s a smart guy. He’s funny, he knows how to market himself. He’s trying to get under Urijah’s skin by saying that I’m a traitor and his enemy. I think it’s the only thing he had against Urijah so he hopped on it a lot,” said Dillashaw.
“But you’ve kind of got to laugh that guy off a little bit, he’s all talk. I think he’s more interested in how much money he’s making now than actually getting better in the sport.
“I laugh the guy off. I try to stay as professional as possible and I’m not going to get into that game of talking trash with him. If you’re going to argue with him it’s almost like grade-school arguments; whoever talks louder and the longest is going to win that one. He doesn’t let anybody ever talk and that’s just not my style.”
Dillashaw, who was part of Urijah Faber’s coaching team on TUF 22, also claimed that McGregor wasn’t there to assist his fighters during the filming of the show.
“He was hardly there. He didn’t even show up. He was just there for the weigh-ins and fights, it seems like. He wasn’t there for his team at all. I learned that he’s, as I said, smart about marketing himself. He’s doing good at that. Like he says, he’s got those numbers.”
Dillashaw also reiterated his desire to move up a weight class and fight McGregor in the future: “I would love that fight. That would be amazing. That would be something I’d love to do.”
Video: MMAFighting.com
