Say this much for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: They don’t pick sides when they see an opportunity to defend animal rights – or to grandstand about their favorite cause.
Last September, PETA went after UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov over videos that surfaced of Nurmagomedov wrestling a bear in his native Russia.
On Thursday, the animal rights group showed it’s not picking sides in the blood rivalry between Nurmagomedov and former UFC two-division champion [autotag]Conor McGregor,[/autotag] or his upcoming opponent, [autotag]Donald Cerrone[/autotag].
McGregor and Cerrone are living in the limelight this week due to their giant UFC 246 main event on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. At Wednesday’s news conference, McGregor and Cerrone went a bit off the rails as they discussed the snakeskin jacket Cerrone was wearing, prompting “Cowboy” to make a crack about PETA in the exchange.
“I’m sure PETA might be here because I got rattlesnakes on and python.”
To which McGregor, who has been known to sport animal hides himself, retorted: “They have a warrant out for me as well, PETA. They’re coming for me, too.”
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This was the equivalent of an aging pitcher hanging a slider right over the middle of the plate with a slugger at bat.
Quote tweeting an MMA Junkie video of the exchange on Thursday, PETA slammed McGregor and Cerrone, writing in part: “You’re right! We ARE here – to remind you that only COWARDS would brag about wearing an animal who was likely beaten & skinned alive. Why don’t you knock out your insecurities and only wear your own skin?
McGregor and Cerrone were tagged in the tweet.
Hi @TheNotoriousMMA and @CowboyCerrone!
You’re right! We ARE here—to remind you that only COWARDS would brag about wearing an animal who was likely beaten & skinned alive.
Why don’t you knock out your insecurities and only wear your OWN skin? https://t.co/e6jCY9x7IZ
— PETA (@peta) January 16, 2020
When made aware of PETA’s criticism by MMA Junkie, Cerrone responded.
“Man, I guess if killing humans was legal I could probably wear a bad-ass human jacket,” Cerrone said. “I got a white buffalo at home, PETA. And when she crokes, I’m going to wear a (expletive) (expletive)ass white buffalo cape one of these days. At the ranch I have a lot of animals: turkeys, goats, chickens, pigs. We kill them and butcher them, and we eat them all ourselves, man. We use every bit of them. So it’s not like – I don’t just go down to the store and buy beef. We raise it and kill it and eat it. So, if there’s something inhumane or unjust about killing beef for my own sake, PETA, you’re (expletive) up.
Granted, I didn’t kill the snake or raise the snake to build a python jacket, but goddammit it was (expletive) cool, so I had to wear to it.”
UFC 246 takes place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
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