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Chael Sonnen analyzed the series of tweets that Conor McGregor posted on Twitter last Wednesday. The former UFC double champion ranted about a mysterious opponent before deleting the posts. 'The Notorious' McGregor wrote the following in sequence:
"Shitty jocks."
"You can run, but you can't hide."
"Don't be scared, homie."
Like the rest of the MMA world, former UFC middleweight title contender Sonnen was left intrigued by McGregor's words and tried to decipher the puzzle in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel. Like many others, Sonnen's first instinct was to draw the notes back to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
"Conor McGregor sends out a cryptic tweet, the tweet says, and I quote, 'You can run, but you can't hide.' Hashtag: 'don't be scared, homie.' All Conor wanted us to do with that tweet was to speculate as to what the hell he is talking about. And guess what, Conor? You get your way! Because we are drawn to believe that he is referring to Khabib."
The classic 'Don't be scared, homie' sentence is attributed to Nick Diaz. McGregor has a feud with the other Diaz brother, Nate. Rambling on, Sonnen speculated if McGregor might have confused himself and used Nick's quote to call out Nate.
"'Don't be scared, homie,' that's a Diaz quote. Nick Diaz, to be specific. But I'm not sure Conor would know the difference between Nick and Nate. He might have just got it wrong over time and then re-associated that quote to Nate now," said Sonnen. "He might have been paying homage, maybe Conor is just an 'OG' cage fighter that is going back to when that quote came about to be funny, or maybe he's not talking about Khabib, he is calling out Diaz. Nick is the one that said it, not Nate, but Conor's got heat with Nate. Make no mistake: part three is happening at some point," theorized Sonnen about Nate Diaz being the possible target.
Sonnen dismissed the possibility that the messages could be addressed to Dustin Poirier, McGregor's next opponent, because the fight contract has already been signed, and there is no news about Poirier leaning to cancel the bout.
One of the most popular and controversial fighters of his era, Sonnen remembered when he used to post cryptic messages on social media to create intrigue and speculation about his fights. For him, it is an excellent skill for a fighter to have.
"I did this one time, by the way. I'm trying to think of what my exact message was. But I was talking back to somebody, I think it was Wanderlei [Silva], and it was through Twitter. I didn't have a great line. I knew I didn't have a great line," recollected Sonnen. "So, I capitalized one of the words in the line. I believe I capitalized the word 'real.' I put 'real' in capitals, which phonetically looked great. For the English language it's inappropriate typing, but people speculated as to why I capitalized that word. That was my entire intent because I knew the line wasn't good. I only offer that to you because there's something great about when a guy sends out a cryptic tweet. Speculation is the worst thing that you could ever have to deal with."
He cites an example of a time where he tweeted the word 'real' in all caps. The message was directed to Lyoto Machida and not Wanderlei Silva, as Sonnen incorrectly recalled.
"I ask Brazil for a fight and Machida answers. I ask for a REAL fight, and a Marine steps up. I see you hiding Lyoto, and I won't forget this."
The fight with Machida never took place in the UFC. But the two met last year in Sonnen's last professional MMA bout, where he suffered a TKO to Machida during the second round at Bellator 222.
A possibility Chael Sonnen didn't consider: could Conor McGregor's enigma refer to Jake Paul?
Jake Paul has been trash-talking Conor McGregor since he debuted in boxing, defeating fellow YouTuber AnEsonGib. Over the last weekend, Paul won his second boxing bout by knockinout former NBA player Nate Robinson.
While McGregor has blatantly ignored the YouTube star thus far, some speculated 'The Notorious' could have directed the series of tweets towards Jake Paul.
