Deleted Conor McGregor tweet looks a lot worse once you hear what was said to him

We're not getting our pitchforks out for Conor McGregor just yet, but there was no excuse for what he said to Artem Lobov.

You could argue that shouting 'dance for me, boy' at Floyd Mayweather wasn't racist, you could claim Conor McGregor was referring to actual 'dancing monkeys' in that Rocky movie, but it's impossible to proclaim that the six-letter f-word isn't a homophobic slur. The tell-tale sign that the UFC superstar fucked up was the UFC and BT Sport twitter accounts immediately deleted a clip of his conversation with Artem Lobov backstage at UFC Gdansk after 'the Russian Hammer' lost to Andre Fili. His multiple uses of the homophobic slur are bound to make a lot of folks forget the good work he did in the build-up to the 2015 Marriage Equality Referendum. 'The Notorious' used his star power to promote a yes vote that ultimately passed by a big majority. https://twitter.com/McDuckMMA/status/921819486285467648 If there was any doubt over what he said to his teammate, the reverse angle removed all that. The clearer audio in the second clip that emerged was as damning as they come. https://twitter.com/fuufnf/status/921823200031453185 McGregor was one of the biggest losers to emerge from Gdansk. First, he was told off by referee Marc Goddard for his attempted mid-fight coaching from the crowd then the footage started doing the rounds on social media. No statement had been made from the UFC, McGregor or his team regarding the comments at the time of writing, but multiple reports claim he was referring to Fili who, not only comprehensively beat Lobov over three rounds but also taunted McGregor several times from the cage. Fili did the 'billionaire strut' after entering the Octagon and mean-mugged McGregor between rounds. However, once the fight was over, he showed nothing but respect towards the UFC lightweight champion, as you can see from the clip embedded below.