Conor McGregor coach John Kavanagh has remained unrepentant over his tweet lampooning a $1 billion pledge to promote gender equality from Microsoft founder Bill Gates' parter Melinda as '"a wife spending her husband's money".
A Forbes article reported that Melinda would pledge the hefty sum to promote gender equality in the U.S. over the next 10 years through foundations set up by the couple.
The news seemed to strike a chord with Kavanagh, who called out the mission from Gates, married to the man world's 2nd-richest person by the same publication, to “empower women” as perhaps a tad hypocritical.
"Nothing says equality like a wife spending her husband's money," Kavanagh joked, insinuating the cash Melinda would be splashing on the endeavor was in fact Bill’s and therefore defeating the object of her noble principles in the Irishman’s eyes.
The tweet went viral, being retweeted by UFC color commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan. What followed was a landslide of replies to the SBG Ireland trainer; some accused him of ignorance, while others agreed.
After the tweet went viral, Kavanagh experienced a surge in attention toward his Twitter account, and also the negative reaction, which, and triggered a response you might expect from the man who has nurtured motormouth McGregor from rookie fighter to UFC legend.
"Well I guess that tweet went viral with +50k likes and +5k new followers," Kavanagh wrote, before seemingly acknowledging his words may have hurt the feelings of social justice warriors.
"But my joke hurt a lot of people and I should have thought about their feelings before making it. So I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize...to absolutely nobody."
The rebuttal was a paraphrase of McGregor's famous post-fight interview in the octagon after winning the UFC lightweight title against Eddie Alvarez in November 2016 to become a double champion in the promotion, in response to his army of 'haters'.
Also on rt.com 'I'd love to visit Moscow': McGregor coach John Kavanagh up for Khabib rematch in Russian capitalKavanagh might have not shown a shred of remorse on Twitter but he might have to consider apologizing to his own other half.
His fiancé Orlagh Hunter sarcastically replied: "Your sandwich is ready babe..would you like a beer to wash it down?" to signal Kavanagh's biggest battle is closer to home.