Conor McGregor has shared a photo of him and John Kavanagh shaking hands at training as he continues preparations for his UFC return.
The Notorious paid tribute to Kavanagh in the post on Instagram.
Commenting on it, McGregor said: "Respect to the man who introduced me to the game."
And Kavanagh replied on the post by saying "Oss" (an abbreviation for Onegai Shimasu), which translates into a request, a solicitation, an invitation like “please”, “if you may” or “with your permission” and is much used when inviting a partner to train.
Meanwhile, McGregor has laid into Khabib Nurmagomedov's cousin Abubakar after the Russian suffered a devastating defeat just two minutes into his UFC debut.
Debutant Abubaka entered Saturday’s UFC Moscow event with a 15-2-1 record in MMA.
But the Russian fighter fell to a shock defeat in the Octagon after being submitted by David Zawada in the opening round of their preliminary welterweight contest.
And McGregor, who was beaten by Khabib in UFC last October, was quick to poke fun at the Nurmagomedovs with a series of social media posts.
The Irishman wrote on Twitter : "Nurmagotaptap."
A further three posts read: "Hahahah s****bags.
"He tapped his forehead. If you can tap his forehead. You can punch his forehead. He quit. 1 quitter exposed. Abubakar Nurmagotaptap. Forever a failure.
"A 5 second triangle hahahah."
McGregor then appeared to delete those tweets, before simply posting a fourth: "Console him. Then tell him he’s cut."
The Irish star's outburst comes after Khabib told him what he needs to do to earn a rematch for his UFC title - and it's much more than McGregor might have anticipated.
McGregor is set to make his long-awaited return to the octagon on January 18, having not fought since being choked out by Nurmagomedov in October last year.
It has not yet been revealed who McGregor's next opponent will be, although fellow lightweights Justin Gaethje and Donald Cerrone are the among the likely contenders.
After that fight, former two-weight UFC champion McGregor wants to fight Jorge Masvidal after his win against Nate Diaz at UFC 244, before rounding off 2020 with a rematch against Nurmagomedov.
But Nurmagomedov has told McGregor he needs to win not two, but 10 straight bouts to earn the chance to face the Russian again.
“As for a rematch, to fight for a belt in the UFC, I remember I had something like nine or 10 fights," Nurmagomedov said in quotes reported by MMA Junkie .
"If he wins 10 fights in a row, then that’s completely possible."
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