Smith Bashes McGregor’s ‘Tasteless, Classless Behavior’

Conor McGregor used to be a master of mind games, breaking opponents like Jose Aldo and Donald Cerrone before they even stepped foot inside the cage. These days, he’s just a foul-mouthed bully who likes to take potshots at his opponents’ families.

Like Khabib Nurmagomedov’s father and Dustin Poirier’s wife.

That’s according to ESPN mouthpiece Stephen A. Smith, no stranger to “Notorious” takes. Smith joined Michael Eaves, Dominick Cruz and Michael Bisping on the UFC 264 post-fight show to condemn some of the Irishman’s post-fight behavior.

“That’s going too damn far,” Smith said. “Now, I cover the worlds of basketball, football and things of that nature and the reality is this: if this was any of those athletes, we’d be all over them for the type of language he used and the way he talked about Dustin Poirier’s family. There is absolutely, positively no excuse for Conor McGregor to engage in that tasteless, classless behavior.”

McGregor went after “The Diamond’s” wife, Jolie Poirier, in the buildup to his UFC 264 trilogy on July 10 in Las Vegas, then took some additional swipes after the bell. But the Poirier family got the last laugh when “Notorious” snapped his leg and wound up butt-first on the floor.

Watch the video highlights here.

“I understand that this is the fight game, and we see a lot of stuff going on from time to time,” Smith continued. “But, to be on your backside with a broken leg and to go at Dustin Poirier that way, where you are attacking and insulting the man’s wife, that’s why Dustin had to be restrained from going after Conor, because you’re talking about the man’s wife. It was really uncalled for.”

McGregor had surgery to repair his broken leg and is expected to make a full recovery. That said, “Notorious” will spend the next six weeks on crutches, no doubt thinking about everything that went wrong at UFC 264.