UFC president Dana White says superstar fighter Conor McGregor will likely be arrested after being involved in a backstage melee after a UFC 223 media event at Barclays Center in New York.
McGregor, the UFC’s biggest draw, isn’t on the fight card for UFC 223. But video of the incident showed the 29-year-old Dublin native and his entourage tossing trash cans and guard rails at a bus that White revealed was carrying many of the fighters who were scheduled to compete this weekend.
UFC lightweight fighter Michael Chiesa suffered cuts to his face and head, while women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas narrowly avoided being struck, White said in a Facebook Live interaction with reporters.
A New York Police Department spokesperson told Reuters that authorities were looking into the incident, but no arrest warrants had been issued.
WATCH: UFC president Dana White says warrant out for Conor McGregor’s arrest
McGregor and his entourage were let into the Barclays Center by credentialed media members with The Mac Life, McGregor’s website and YouTube channel, White revealed. He said the approximately 20-strong group made their way to a loading dock area where fighters were getting on buses to go back to their hotel after the press conference.
Video footage appears to show McGregor tossing a guard rail at a bus.
White says the New York Police Department have a warrant for McGregor’s arrest.
“I’m assuming eventually if they don’t catch him, he’ll turn himself in,” White said.
“You can imagine he’s going to be sued beyond belief, and this was a real bad career move for him.”
Asked if the UFC was still willing to be in business with McGregor, White said, “Right now, no, absolutely not.”
Russian fighter Artem Lobov, a teammate of McGregor’s and fellow member of Dublin-based Straight Blast Gym, was also involved in the scuffle, White said. Lobov, who was scheduled to take on American fighter Alex Caceres at UFC 223, has been pulled from the card.
Lobov was previously involved in a confrontation in a hotel with compatriot Khabib Nurmagomedov, whose lightweight bout with Max Holloway will headline UFC 223.
Canadian mixed martial arts reporter Ariel Helwani reported that the fracas was prompted by a desire to retaliate to the confrontation between Nurmagomedov and Lobov.
Nurmagomedov and Holloway will battle it out for the lightweight championship, which was stripped from McGregor this week due to inactivity.
McGregor won the 155-pound lightweight belt in November 2016, but hasn’t fought for the UFC since.
McGregor did, however, take on American boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in an August 2017 boxing match, reportedly raking in over $100 million for his participation.
He responded to being stripped of his lightweight title by taking to Twitter and writing, “You’ll strip me of nothing.”
READ MORE: Floyd Mayweather wins by 10th round TKO after strong Conor McGregor start
White said that if McGregor really wanted to fight Nurmagomedov or anybody else in the UFC, he could have looked to do so inside the octagon.
“But you want to grab 30 f***ing friends and come down here and do what you did today? It’s disgusting and I don’t think anybody’s going to be huge Conor McGregor fans after this,” White said.
“This is the fight game. Mean things are said, people get in each other’s faces, people grab each other and do stuff like that. It’s completely normal, and we always… contain it and handle it as part of the business,” he added
“But what happened today was criminal, disgusting, despicable, makes me sick and we as an organization need to make sure that this never happens again.”
McGregor hasn’t commented or made a public appearance since the incident.
Comments