Conor McGregor's UFC 197 opponent Rafael Dos Anjos has hit back at the Irishman's description of him as a "traitor" to his native Brazil, and said the Dubliner was "a classless low-life".
Featherweight kingpin McGregor will face lightweight champion Dos Anjos in Las Vegas on 5 March as he bids to become the first UFC fighter to hold belts at two divisions simultaneously.
"The guy thinks just because he is dressed nice and drives nice cars that he has class, but he's classless, he's a low-life," Dos Anjos told the Daily Mail.
"I knew he was going to talk over me and take my place, that's his style. But I'm going to talk louder on 5 March.
"I knew he was going to try to use all his weapons to make me get mad but I kept calm. He has no respect, he doesn't know the word, it doesn't exist for him.
"He's going to get worse, he's going to do everything to promote himself, do everything for money."
McGregor riled Dos Anjos with a typically bombastic performance at a press conference on Wednesday, where the Crumlin native said his rival had abandoned his roots: "He ran from the country of Brazil, he didn't trust his own. This guy, in Brazil lingo, is a gringo. That's the truth. Why are your kids named Bob and Donald?"
Dos Anjos has now responded by saying McGregor's comments are an insult to all Irish emigrants and asking for Irish in the USA to support him in the fight.
"In Brazil, millions of Brazilians leave and a lot of Irish leave Ireland," said Dos Anjos. "These people don't deserve to be called traitors.
"I think he's calling his own people traitors and I want to call all the Irish who live in the USA to be on my side because he called them traitors. I want their support on 5 March."
Dos Anjos also warned McGregor that replicating his Cage Warriors feat of holding two titles at once would not be done as easily on the bigger stage and predicted that he would make the Irishman's UFC lightweight debut a losing one.
"He's making a big mistake," said the Brazilian. "He thinks just because he won two divisions in a small show in Ireland he will do the same thing in the UFC.
"No disrespect, but the UFC is the biggest competition in the world, it's not easy to win two belts. I fought better guys, I fought bigger guys, smaller guys and faster guys before.
"I think Conor is just one more guy that I'm going to put my hands on and I'm going to be victorious for sure."
