“He needs to go to rehab.”

UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad has dismissed Conor McGregor’s recent social media attack.

Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) recently captured the UFC welterweight crown by dominating Leon Edwards at UFC 304. McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) fired verbal shots at Muhammad, criticizing his fighting style and drawing power while vowing to become a three-division champion.

“I would love to ram my left hook into Belal’s temple and rip off the triple crown,” McGregor wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “I would make it easy. And quickly!

“To think that this bum is now a UFC champion and has no defeats on his resume is so bad. The UFC’s most disastrous zero-revenue fighter in modern history.”

McGregor, who won the UFC’s featherweight and lightweight titles, has trained at 170 pounds three times in the UFC. Not only does Muhammad see no path to a potential showdown in the octagon, he also believes McGregor’s fighting career is over.

“I don’t think he’ll ever fight again,” Muhammad told MMA Junkie. “I think he’s at that part of his life now where he realizes people are starting to forget about him. He loves that attention so much, and when he sees something happening in the UFC that makes headlines, he wants to get that attention.

“I get announced a fight and he wants to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to fight this guy,’ and he knows people are going to talk about it and talk about it. Even after big fights – look at Max Holloway’s fight against Ilia Topuria, he’ll come up with a stupid speech.”

Less than five months after winning the title, Muhammad is about to make his first title defense. He will face undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov in the main event of UFC 310 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

McGregor has not competed since breaking his lower leg at UFC 264 in July 2021 in a trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier. He has long been linked to a fight against Michael Chandler, but the fight continued to be pushed back until Chandler decided to move on.

Recently, McGregor appeared at BKFC events, the bare-knuckle boxing promotion that he now co-owns. In interviews, the Irishman claims he is desperate to return to action, but he and the UFC don’t seem to be on the same page.

McGregor has found a new potential opponent in Dan Hooker, who recently agreed to fight at a BKFC event.

Muhammad believes it’s all part of McGregor’s plan to stay in people’s minds.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Muhammad said. “He knows he’s going to get people talking about him and saying, ‘Oh, maybe McGregor will come back in 2027. Maybe McGregor will come back in 2028.

“I think he needs to do some rehab first. Once he is clear and clean he can go back to the gym and continue training.”