Conor McGregor has thanked Justin Bieber for a message he sent after his loss to Dustin Poirier in their rematch earlier this year.
The Irishman was trying out Instagram Live for the first time when Bieber popped into the chat, which was inhabited by hundreds of thousands of other viewers.
And he thanked him for a message he received from the singer in the wake of his fight with Poirier at UFC 257, which he says 'meant a lot' to him.
Former two-weight world champion McGregor will have a third shot at Poirier on Saturday night when the pair square off at UFC 264 in Las Vegas, with the event expected to break pay-per-view records.
" Justin Bieber! What's up, Justin Bieber? Love you brother," McGregor said when he realised the singer was watching his Instagram Live stream on Friday night.
"This [IG Live] is quality man, this is good yeah, I just wanted to check this out.
"Justin, I love you, bro, I'll tell you what mate, I appreciate the message from the last fight - that meant a hell of a lot to me, really, truly did.
"So I've been busy putting in the work, full focused, fully immersed in Mixed Martial Arts, there's been nothing but Mixed Martial Arts - I'm ready to put on a show."
Bieber posted a public message of support to McGregor following the Poirier rematch, saying 'love this guy, win or lose' with a picture of McGregor holding aloft an Irish flag.
The Grammy winner is an avid fight fan, and even asked for the UFC's president Dana White to promote a fight between him and actor Tom Cruise.
And White considered making the bout, admitting in 2019 that he had held talks with people who could make the fight happen.
"Listen, if I can make that fight, I'd be all over that fight," White told TMZ. "It'd be the biggest pay-per-view in the history of pay-per-view.
"As crazy as that sounds, that is true; I don't want to use any names, but I was at home on a Sunday, and I got a call with two big guys on the phone.
"They were telling me this could possibly happen and this could be real, I'm like, 'there's no way that this is really going to happen', but if it does, call me back. I'm in.
"Oh my god, it would be massive, everybody laughed when we talked about this, so you've heard of it. Who wouldn't watch that? Everybody would watch it.
"It's a complete train wreck, and I love it - I'm in."
He walked Floyd Mayweather to the ring on a number of occasions, and also was a part of Logan Paul's entourage for his professional boxing debut against KSI in November 2019.
The singer led a pre-fight prayer backstage at Paul's fight with the British YouTuber, but it was ultimately unsuccessful as Paul ended up losing a controversial unanimous decision.
Bieber performed a four-song set at Jake Paul's fight with Ben Askren, and was spotted in the ring afterwards speaking to the younger Paul brother.
