Conor McGregor has suggested his battle with Khabib Nurmagomedov is not over despite losing to the Russian in Las Vegas over the weekend.
The Irishman's mixed martial arts return after a near two-year hiatus fell flat as he tapped out midway through the fourth round at UFC 229.
Controversy and violent scenes then followed as Nurmagomedov, who had retained his lightweight title, soured a career-best performance by vaulting the cage and attacking someone from McGregor's camp.
We lost the match but won the battle. The war goes on. pic.twitter.com/CRtPaGfOnn — Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 8, 2018
McGregor was attacked by at least two men who entered the cage as the bad blood between the camps spilled over.
Yet afterwards McGregor seemed unfazed by the trouble and tweeted that he was "looking forward to the rematch".
On Monday he again appeared to call for another opportunity to fight Nurmagomedov as he tweeted: "We lost the match but won the battle. The war goes on."
The tweet was accompanied by a picture of McGregor sporting a black eye but looking relaxed holding a drink.
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Press Association Sport staff');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '7434b1ad-6c32-4960-9f31-6ff2b2bb8b07');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:world');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:other,sport:ufc');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'McGregor says \u2018the war goes on\u2019 in wake of Nurmagomedov loss'});
