Conor McGregor played the pantomime villain and took the opportunity to promote his new brand of whiskey during his pre-fight media conference with Khabib Nurmagomedov.
McGregor and Nurmagomedov fight for the UFC world lightweight title in Las Vegas on Saturday, 6 October.
It will be the Irish man’s first time in the octagon in two years, during which time he fought Floyd Mayweather in the boxing ring, though he was in his usual bombastic form in Thursday night’s expletive-loaded New York City event.
"I came back for the love of this, to shut this little rat, weasel up," he roared. "He’s a big man in groups, a man on his own when confronted cowers away.
"You saw that on the bus - he s*** his jocks. I came back for the love of fighting and the love of war and I’m looking forward to putting a beating on this little glass-jaw rat."
McGregor is currently on probation in America following an incident where he attacked a bus carrying his next opponent.
He lambasted the media conference’s organisers for not allowing fans attend, though UFC President Dana White says fans were locked out to ensure that there would be no trouble.
"Where’s the fans?" asked McGregor. "That’s who we fight for, those are the people who pay the bills. I’m up to my eyeballs in probation - bring the fans in. You want a war, here we are - let’s get a war going."
When asked what he was going to do one night, the Notorious said: "Stamp on his head as he’s unconscious.
"He’s an amateur, would you believe he’s 26-0? He’s fought nobody. I’m going to pick him apart and maul him in there."
McGregor has launched a new brand of whiskey, Proper Twelve, and he spent much of the conference singing it’s praises.
He brought in two bottles and asked for glasses to share a drink with White and Nurmagomedov. The Russian is Muslim and doesn’t drink so turned down the offer.
He said: "I don’t drink". To this McGregor, who repeatedly got to his feet in an attempt to confront his opponent, responded: "I’d say you’re mad craic at parties, you mad backwards s***."
It was a typical McGregor performance as he whipped up interest in the fight - over 500,000 people watched a live stream of the NYC event - and got under the skin of his oppnent.
When asked what he thought of the performance, Nurmagomedov responded: "This is exactly what I expected."
As the pair traded insults, Nurmagomedov taunted McGregor for speaking English instead of Irish, to which he replied: "Go mo leithscéal. An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas ag on mbus?"
