UFC welterweight star and known loudmouth Colby Covington has taken a pop at the former featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor.

In his most recent interview with MMA Fighting, Covington said: "Nothing gets him up early in the morning to go fight. He tries to say it's for his kids but man, the guy's done."

Strong words from the American. But could he have a point?

McGregor is still one of the UFC's biggest draws, but has lost three of his last four fights in the Octagon, leaving himself open to these kinds of verbal attacks.

The last man to defeat Notorious was Dustin Poirier, who needed only two rounds to KO the Irishman at UFC 257 in January at the Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi.

McGregor had previously KOd Poirier in the first round of UFC 178 in 2014, though. 

As such, the pair are scheduled to meet again to settle the score once and for all at UFC 264 on July 10.

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Though McGregor should perhaps be focusing on his upcoming bout with Poirier, during the build-up to the trilogy bout, the vocal Irishman has been engaged in a social media spat with current welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, too; something that has evidently not gone down well with Colby Covington…

"That's obviously just Conor trying to get some hype, get some headlines," Covington told MMA Fighting.

"Come on, dude, the guy just got knocked out by 'Dustin Sorry-ier.' Come on, are you serious? You want a title shot at 170?

"You're getting beat up by gatekeeper lightweights and now you want to come to the top of the 170 welterweight division?

"Everybody knows what Conor's doing. He's not really gonna do that. He's not gonna come up and fight [at] welterweight."

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Covington, a former welterweight champion himself, held little back in his scathing verbal attack on the out-of-form McGregor, continuing: "He's just doing that to grab attention, to grab headlines, make people think he's being taken seriously because honestly, he's a joke.

He's the laughing stock in the MMA community and even to casual fans because they're just like, 'Conor's washed up. He's done.'

"He made all that money with his whiskey, he made all that money for the Mayweather fight, he has no motivation … he has nothing left in the tank."

To his credit, despite suffering a brutal broken jaw in the fifth round of his championship defeat to Usman in 2019, Covington is eager to reclaim what he perceives to be his belt from the Nigerian Nightmare and is marking his territory just in case McGregor should beat Poirier in July and then set his sights up a weight class on Usman.

Moreover, Usman is well aware of the lucrative amount of money to be made should a fight with McGregor come to pass and has been hankering for a chance to share the Octagon with the Irishman for several years.

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Covington rebounded from the Usman defeat to KO Tyron Woodley with a savage body shot in September of last year, but doesn’t currently have a fight in the pipeline.

Dana White appears to be in agreement with Chaos regarding his championship credentials, though. At a recent press conference, the UFC president said: "It's the fight to make. [Colby is] the No.1 guy in the world [after the champion]."

If I had to hazard a guess as to how all this will play out, it seems likely that Usman vs Covington 2 will be pencilled in before the end of the year; the first fight was an absolute barnburner, so that's a total no-brainer for the UFC president.

Regarding McGregor, IF he beats Poirier in the trilogy bout (and it's a big IF) I can imagine him wanting to become the first three-weight world champion in the UFC, so a bout vs the winner of Usman vs Covington 2 isn't totally out of the question for the Irishman.

Whether or not it's a good idea for Notorious is another question... (did everyone see that Masvidal KO!? Ouch!)

Keep an eye on how all this unfolds - it could get very interesting towards the back end of 2021.