'We smashed your team that night you punk': Khabib bites back at Nate Diaz insult

UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov has sounded off on fellow fighter Nate Diaz, saying that he and his crew "smashed" Diaz and his team in a brawl at an MMA event in 2015, after the American called the Russian a "pussy".

The Twitter back-and-forth stems from Diaz interjecting in Khabib's latest dig at Conor McGregor, in which he said that the Irishman will have to "live with the shame" of submitting to the undefeated Russian in round four of their UFC 229 bout in October of last year.

Diaz, who participated in two hugely entertaining bouts of his own with McGregor, winning the first and losing the return, referred back to the incident at the World Series of Fighting 22 event in Las Vegas in August 2015, writing on Twitter that he "slapped" Khabib, after which he alleges that Khabib's team failed to back up their fighter.

Refusing to back down, Khabib posted a brief clip of the confrontation which appears to show a chair being thrown at Diaz.

"You was hiding behind security and ran away coward, it’s clear on the video. We just smashed your team that night you punk," he writes. Diaz responds, telling Khabib to "be real" and that the Russian "know[s] what happened."

Diaz and members of his entourage were at the event to support teammate Jake Shields, who fought submission specialist Rousimar Palhares in the featured bout. Khabib's cousin, Abubakar Nurmagomedov, beat Jorge Moreno earlier on the same card.

The brawl between members of the Nurmagomedov and Diaz camp initially started inside the arena but later spilled out on to the Planet Hollywood casino floor, where it was captured on film by fans.

World Series of Fighting, which has since rebranded itself as the Professional Fighters League, banned Nate and Nick Diaz from attending their events in the aftermath of the altercation.