Justin Bieber insists he was "just playing" when he asked Tom Cruise to fight him over social media.
The 'Sorry' hitmaker reached out to UFC boss Dana White on Twitter earlier this week to if she'd be willing to stage a bout between himself and the 'Mission: Impossible' actor, but he's now claimed the tweet was just a "random" joke, and wasn't serious.
When asked if he really intends to fight Tom, 56, Justin said: "Nah, I was just playing. The story is I saw an interview with him, and it was just on my mind ... I don't know why I thought about it. It was just a random tweet. I do that stuff sometimes."
And the 25-year-old singer says even if Tom did agree to the grapple, he'd probably lose because Tom is "big" and has added strength thanks to being a father.
Speaking to TMZ, he added: "But I'm pretty sure Tom would ... I'm pretty sure he'd whoop my a** in a fight. I'd have to get in good shape, I'm really skinny right now. I think he'd probably be out of my weight class. Because he's big, you know he's got that dad strength."
In his original tweet, the 'Love Yourself' singer gave no reason for wanting to fight Tom, but said he wanted to take him on in "the octagon", which is the type of ring used in UFC.
He wrote: "I wanna challenge Tom Cruise to fight in the octagon. Tom if you dont take this fight your scared and you will never live it down. Who is willing to put on the fight? @danawhite ? (sic)"
Dana didn't reply to the message, but UFC champion Conor McGregor was quick to offer to host the fight instead.
He tweeted: "If Tom Cruise is man enough to accept this challenge, McGregor Sports and Entertainment will host the bout. Does Cruise have the sprouts to fight, like he does in the movies? Stay tuned to find out! (sic)"