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Islamophobia and the UFC: How Conor McGregor uses ethnic and religious tension to sell fights

On Wednesday, Conor McGregor targeted UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov with an Islamophobic twitter rant that led to outrage from combat sports fans and the broader media.

The former two-division UFC champion posted a tweet with Nurmagomedov and his wife wearing an Islamic face veil along with the caption, “Your wife’s a towel mate.” The comment was part of a series of tweets that took aim at the lightweight champion’s family and entourage. In another one, McGregor posted a picture of Nurmagomedov’s cousin, Abubakar, with a black eye and stated, “I smacked your brother around and took a s*** in this hat.