Retired UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov appeared on the “Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson” podcast this week to discuss all things family, fighting and... Conor McGregor.

Khabib and McGregor have bad blood which dates back to long before their bout in October 2018, and it hasn’t been plain sailing since.

The pair still take the occasional jab at each other and it’s speculated that, if Khabib was to ever return to the Octagon, they would set up for a perfect rematch.

Last week, McGregor resorted back to his very ‘Notorious’ ways when he took to Twitter to seemingly make a mockery of Nurmagomedov’s late father’s (Abdulmanap) passing - the loss unfortunately down to complications from the Coronavirus.

The pain from losing his beloved father is what spurred ‘The Eagle’ to retire, leaving the sport with an unbeaten record of 29-0 and widely regarded as one of the best fighters in UFC history.

The interaction began when Khabib tweeted congratulating Dustin Poirier on his win over McGregor, saying: “Good always defeats evil. Very happy for @DustinPoirier I hope you will get the belt [at the] end of the year.”

McGregor’s apparent response came two weeks later, when he posted: “Covid is good and father is evil?”, which has since been deleted, and even McGregor fans acknowledged that the Irishman had taken it too far this time around.

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When discussing the topic with Mike Tyson and co-host Henry Cejudo, Khabib said, as per BJPenn.com: “When he talked about this, only evil can talk about your father, wife, kids, religion, If you’re normal human, you’re never going to talk about this stuff.

For me, I think he post this tweet (while) drunk too much or (he was doing) something. Then the next day, he always delete these tweets. When he become normal life (he looks at his phone) and says, ‘Oh, look what I did.’ Then he delete. This is my opinion what he do all the time.

He continued: “When someone is not with us – he is not even alive – this shows what you have inside. This shows how dirty you are. When you one of the best in the world and you come and you punch someone who is like 70 years old, like an old man (in a pub), this shows your heart. This shows who you are inside, how dirty you are. When you have parents and you have kids, how can you show yourself like this? I don’t understand why his close people don’t go, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’”

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Khabib also spoke about how he believes McGregor is essentially surrounded by “yes men”, and that no one dares speak up to him when he acts out of pocket - like in situations he’s found himself in plenty of times before.

He added: “When you become rich, when you become famous, some people they lose real people around them. They lose them. Real people who love you, they’re going to tell you the truth. But fake people? They always say, ‘You’re good.’ They never say to you nothing because they don’t want to upset you because they know they’ll lose this comfortable spot. Real people, they don’t care about this. They were with you before you became famous and rich. They don’t care about your money. They just love you.

"I think he lose a lot of people around him. I don’t think he have people who were with him before when he become champion. Everybody needs someone who reminds you, ‘This is good, this is bad.’”

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The rivalry between the stars shows no signs of easing any time in the near future and if Khabib was to ever make the decision to step into the cage again, you can expect there would be one clear candidate on his mind to extend that extraordinary winning streak.