Welterweight prospect Khamzat Chimaev has taken a shot at Conor McGregor ahead of the Irishman’s anticipated return to the Octagon.

McGregor is slated to step back into the cage in the main event of UFC 257 this Saturday in Abu Dhabi, where he’ll battle No. 2-ranked lightweight contender Dustin Poirier.

While McGregor’s fights always generate massive amounts of anticipation, not everybody is buying into the excitement. Chimaev, for example, considers the Irishman a “chicken”—and he’s making no secret of that fact.

https://twitter.com/KChimaev/status/1351552527213490177

“The chicken is back,” Chimaev wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Chimaev was the breakout UFC star of summer, 2020. The Chechen-Swede first picked up two wins in the span of 10 days on Fight Island in July, defeating John Phillips by first-round submission and Rhys McKee by first-round TKO, then picked up his third win of the season when he knocked out Gerald Meerschaert at UFC Vegas 11, also in the first round.

While none of those opponents were ranked when Chimaev fought them, he’s nonetheless managed to nab the No. 15 spot in the UFC welterweight rankings. Even more notably, he earned a fight with the division’s No. 3-ranked contender Leon Edwards

The Chimaev vs. Edwards fight was originally scheduled for December 19, but that booking fell through when Edwards tested positive for COVID-19. The fight was then rescheduled for tomorrow’s card on Fight Island—also the setting of McGregor’s UFC 257 fight—but fell through again when Chimaev was sidelined with complications stemming from his own COVID-19 infection. The bout has now been rescheduled a third time, this time for March 13. If the third time is the charm, it will serve as that card’s main event.

If Chimaev is able to defeat Edwards, he’ll open the door to some massive fights in the welterweight division—perhaps even a fight with McGregor, who has competed in the weight class three times previously.

What do you think of this latest dig from Khamzat Chimaev?