Conor McGregor tweets ‘Tony’ and UFC fans go crazy

What other person on this planet - and we're not limiting that to sportspeople - could garner as much traction from one single word?

One word. That's all Conor McGregor needs to send this globe into a flurry. He puts out a tweet and the combat sports world descends into chaos trying to firstly decode it and then debunk the myths that soon follow. Now, all he needs to do is tweet one bloody word and bookmakers will start offering odds on Pay Per View figures. It seems that the Dubliner has had enough of listening to Tony Ferguson run his mouth off. The American claimed the interim lightweight belt last week after beating Kevin Lee by submission and he hasn't hidden the fact that he's looking for a crack at Conor McGregor next. He says it's for the unification of the belt, logic says it's for the payday. But, after winning a 10th fight in succession, he's feeling particularly bold.

"What sounds better than 10 consecutive? Eleven, and it’s got Conor’s name written all over that motherf**ker," the 33-year-old told MMAjunkie Radio. "You guys heard my post-speech. There’s nowhere for him to run, man. He’s got me to deal with, and I’m going to expose that dude."

If you poke the bear, you get a reaction. The bear, in this case, is a composed, one syllable-saying, golden gun-holding former two-weight world champion. https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/918871919293882369 Within half an hour, that one-word tweet had over 30,000 impressions. It shows the scale of Conor McGregor but it also shows the significance of that one word as an indication that the Crumlin man is heading back to his MMA bread and butter. https://twitter.com/John_Kavanagh/status/918872736310681600 UFC 219 is booked for the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on December 30. It could make for a huge end-of-year show and, at the moment, there aren't many bankable headliners available for that card. McGregor's return to the Octagon, no less for a belt unification against an in-form Tony Ferguson, would represent one of the biggest events of the year. It's always one of the biggest events of the year. But it's not the fight everyone wants. https://twitter.com/RKOPunk7/status/918871980476194817