'He's the best at it': Donald Cerrone warns Conor McGregor 'not to low blow' with trash-talk ahead of UFC 246

Silver-tongued fighter Conor McGregor has yet to focus his trash-talking crosshairs on his UFC 246 opponent, but Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone has warned the Irishman to let his fists, and not his mouth, do the talking.

McGregor has made a career on his reputation for unleashing verbal barrages at his rivals but he has so far held his tongue when it comes to Cerrone - and his opponent in next Saturday's crunch showdown in Las Vegas has warned the Dubliner to keep quiet in advance of their fight.

McGregor famously targeted Cerrone at a press conference a number of years ago but has since kept him at arm's length, even going so far as to tweet his congratulations at the American fighter following a headkick TKO win against Alexander Hernandez a year ago. 

Both men will obviously renew their rivalry inside the UFC cage on January 18 but until that time comes, Cerrone says he is content with the status of his relationship with the former two-division UFC champion.

"That’s just you media boys digging and shoveling for sh*t to bring up," Cerrone told MMA Fighting when asked if he held any bad feelings towards McGregor stemming from their previous press conference confrontation.  

"That’s all that was. Conor hasn’t said anything bad about me so you’ve got to go get old sh*t out."

The two foes will come face to face late on Wednesday in Las Vegas for the first official press conference to promote their UFC 246 fight, where Cerrone knows that his truce with McGregor will likely expire, but despite McGregor being described by Cerrone as the best talker in the sport, he says that he doesn't expect anything to get under his skin.

"He’s the best at it. He is the best,” Cerrone said "The thing is you’d really have to go low, talk about my grandma or my kid and then it would put it on another level. You understand what I’m saying? Then I’ll just come f*ck you up in the lobby type sh*t.

"I don’t think it’s ever going to go that way. He understands that. We’re fighting, he can talk about that all he wants but don’t low blow."

This is a very different environment from the one which characterized McGregor's previous fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov, where a trail of bad blood followed both fighters into the cage, but Cerrone says that he is glad that he isn't part of such an intense feud.

"Just like I don’t say nothing about him. I don’t care," Cerrone said. "He lives his life out of fighting, that’s his thing. I got nothing to say about it. He’s his own man.

"I’m going to try to get in there and mix it up with him. I’m happy to welcome him back."