Conor McGregor wants Stephen A. Smith to apologize to Joe Rogan, Donald Cerrone

Stephen A. Smith still isn’t backing down, not even from Conor McGregor.

[autotag]Conor McGregor[/autotag] has jumped into the Joe Rogan vs. Stephen A. Smith beef, and he’s demanded an apology from the ESPN personality.

Following Smith’s post-fight criticism of Donald Cerrone after his loss to McGregor at UFC 246 last week, Rogan took to his podcast and voiced his frustration. He chastised Smith for labeling Cerrone a “quitter” and said he thought that type of coverage doesn’t belong on a UFC broadcast.

Smith took to Twitter on Saturday and refused to back down from anything he said. That caused a firestorm of reaction from the MMA community, but there was no bigger name to weigh in than McGregor himself.

“The Notorious” replied to Smith’s video, demanding an apology for what was said.

The call you discuss here is A+. I didn’t show enough. I’m not paid by the hour though. Joe’s comments however, come from you saying the opposition fighter quit. Broken nose/orbital bone say different. Fighting is vicious. Those who make the walk deserve full respect!
Apologise.

It took only seconds for McGregor’s reaction to blow up. Smith took notice and showed respect in his response to the former two-division UFC champion, but he clearly wasn’t budging from his position.

Sir, mich respect to the great @TheNotoriousMMA. My recollection on what I said is “That’s the way it looked.” Cowboy Cerrone is a perennial top-10 fighter. Much respect to him for the lengthy career he has had. Wishing him nothing but the best. But I don’t think it’s unfair to..

say that more than 40-seconds was expected from as tough of an SOB as he is, @TheNotoriousMMA. Nor do I think it’s wrong to assume that there’s no way that’s 40-second fight would take place w/ you vs Nurmegamedov or Masvidal. We expected more than what we got. Props to YOU for..

that. But to know how tough Cowboy is, lots of fans like myself expected more and I don’t think @joerogan is right to question my knowledge about a fight just because I wasn’t satisfied with what I saw. I said what I said and I meant it. It’s possible to do that and still have…

Tremendous respect for you @TheNotoriousMMA, along with @joerogan. Both of you are fantastic for the @UFC. I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much without the both of you. I wish you both prosperity in the future. But we clearly disagree about Cowboy’s performance on Jan.18.

Although Smith’s answer was lengthy, it surely won’t be the last on this topic. He has a full week of television coming up on ESPN’s “First Take,” and there’s a good chance this will be a topic of discussion between him and co-host Max Kellerman.

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