Conor McGregor got himself into hot water during last when he repeatedly referred to Floyd Mayweather as “boy” during their world tour.

Was Cody Garbrandt not paying attention?

The UFC bantamweight champion got involved in a Twitter beef with Aljamain Sterling over the weekend, which started as a typical Twitter beef between UFC fighters but quickly spiraled out of control with accusations of racism (via Twitter):

Right here, when Garbrandt called Sterling “boy,” is where things got ugly. Sterling even started responding to others chiming in. Garbrandt defended his trash-talk.

Garbrandt (11-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) hasn’t fought since winning the belt from Dominick Cruz last December at UFC 207. He’s scheduled for his first title defense at November’s UFC 217 vs. rival T.J. Dillashaw.

Sterling (14-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC), meanwhile, is fresh off the biggest win of his career last month, defeating ex-champion Renan Barao via unanimous decision at UFC 214.

If Garbrandt and Sterling cross paths in the future, a story line already is built in.

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The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.