Former UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor wants a shot at the interim title holder.

In a flurry of tweets on Monday afternoon, the 31-year-old Dubliner issued a challenge to Justin Gaethje, who defeated Tony Ferguson on Saturday night at UFC 249 for the interim crown.

While Gaethje opened the door for a McGregor fight down the road in his post-fight remarks, he made it clear that his focus was on Khabib Nurmagomedov, the defending lightweight champion. McGregor made it clear that he wants Gaethje next.

"The fans make the sport!" McGregor wrote. "Watching the other night, I was against going in without them. But it will be my f---ing pleasure to display the power I possess with zero background noise for them. It's me and Justin next as Khabib is the biggest bottle fighter in the game.
Guarantee it."

McGregor had also apparently not forgotten a tweet that Gaethje sent his way last year in which he insulted McGregor as a father.

"Justin, there is no danger in a man that hugs legs, we all know," McGregor tweeted. "Try and dance around what the real threat is here all you want. I am going to f---ing butcher you. Your teeth, I’m going to put them on a f---ing necklace. Speak on my skills as a father? You are f---ing dead."

McGregor also offered faint praise for Gaethje's defeated foe, Ferguson.

"I love Tony," McGregor wrote. "We represented him amazingly at Paradigm Sports [management company] and were betrayed for a promise of a baseball contract [Ferguson was a high-school baseball star] . But frame and preparation here was just embarrassing. His methods and conversation are humorous/enjoyable, but he was never the level perceived. Although tough."

McGregor even suggested the next opponent for Ferguson - Dustin Poirier, the man McGregor defeated at UFC 178 in 2014 by first-round TKO.

Confusingly, McGregor seemed to pick both men to lose the fight.

"It is Dustin/Tony next when Tony heals," McGregor tweeted. "If he does, Dustin will beat him also if changes are not made, which they won’t [be]. Dustin, although game, and in the mix, will be fed to the floor again. Couple wins here/there, then folded in half. Rinse and repeat - Dustin's career."

McGregor also had words for bitter rival Nurmagomedov, the man who submitted him in the fourth round of their lightweight title fight at UFC 229.

"Khabib, you absolute embarrassment," McGregor tweeted. "Scurrying, hiding rat as usual. As I have said many times. As has been seen many times. Through the pane of glass, it was confirmed what was always known. 'No comment' LOL. An embarrassment to real fighting."

As the coda to his tweets, McGregor declared that once he was finished a "demolition" job at lightweight, he intended to move up to middleweight (170 lbs). McGregor has never fought at a heavier class than welterweight (155 lbs).

McGregor was last in action at UFC 246 in January when he defeated Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone by TKO just :40 into their welterweight contest.