McGregor, Holloway trade barbs as fight talk heats up

Conor McGregor has reignited a war of words with UFC rival Max Holloway, leaving fight fans craving a rematch between the pair.

Holloway won his 12th consecutive fight with a third round stoppage of Jose Aldo during UFC 218 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit over the weekend.

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But if the American was expecting a level of respect from former nemesis and infamous trash-talker McGregor, he had another thing coming.

Rather than praise Holloway for his latest success in the octagon, 'The Notorious' took to social media to take a cheeky crack at him.

Holloway responded by taking aim at McGregor and the scarcity of his appearances in the octagon of late.

McGregor is the last man to have beaten Holloway, who was a 21-year-old finding his way in the UFC at the time of their bout on Aug. 17, 2013, in Boston.

Since then, Holloway has lapped the field in the featherweight division and a rematch with lightweight champion McGregor could be a massive money-spinner.

McGregor is the biggest star in the sport and has never lost his featherweight title in the cage.

After McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in 2016, he became the first man to hold championships in two weight classes simultaneously.

He was forced to give up one and opted to retain the lightweight belt.

Holloway has closed a lot of ground and in his last seven bouts has beaten Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira, Jeremy Stephens, Ricardo Lamas, Anthony Pettis and Aldo twice.

No fighter has a stronger list of quality wins than Holloway.

He told Yahoo Sports before the bout that his goal isn't to be the best fighter of all-time, but the best athlete.

And while that may be an impossible task, he certainly is on his way to becoming one of his sport's most dominant athletes.

A win against McGregor would go a long way to cementing his reputation as one of the sports all-time greats.

With Yahoo US