Conor McGregor crashed UFC 223 media day Thursday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and there could be some significant legal fallout.
McGregor attacked a bus that had in it several fighters scheduled to compete on Saturday’s card. McGregor at one point threw a dolly through one of the bus windows, which led to UFC lightweight competitor Michael Chiesa suffering multiple lacerations to his face and head. UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas had a scare but managed to avoid injury.
UFC president Dana sat down with a handful of reporters shortly after the incident to explain what happened and give his thoughts on the altercation.
“What happened here today is Conor and approximately 20 guys apparently were let in through the doors by The Mac Life guys (McGregor’s media company), who were credentialed here,” White said. “They opened the doors [at the venue] for him through an entrance, they stormed the building, got down to the loading docks where the fighters were getting on the buses and started to attack the buses, throwing trash cans and dollies, things like that, broke one of the windows and cut Michael Chiesa really bad. He cut his head, he cut his face. Rose Namajunas apparently was almost hit. She’s super upset right now and basically left and walked back to the hotel. And hurt one of our employee’s — broke one of our employee’s knuckles and other injuries. Obviously everybody’s shaken up when 30 thugs storm a [bus]. These guys are all cutting weight and getting ready for a fight.
“This is the most disgusting thing that has ever happened in the history of the company. … You can imagine he’s going to be sued beyond belief and this was a real bad career move for him.”
McGregor turned himself into police later on Thursday.
It’s believed McGregor attacked the bus because UFC 223 headliner Khabib Nurmagomedov was there. Nurmagomedov and McGregor have a budding rivalry and earlier this week Nurmagomedov was involved in an altercation with McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov at the fighter hotel.
[pullquote]”We’re disgusted with him right now. Completely disgusted.” – Dana White on Conor McGregor[/pullquote]
Lobov was among those in McGregor’s group outside the bus and White has removed him from UFC 223. He had been scheduled to fight fellow featherweight Alex “Bruce LeeRoy” Caceres.
“After this disgusting, despicable move, I think everybody’s relationship with Conor’s gonna be not so great,” White said when asked about his professional relationship with McGregor. “Even the police officer who came to me about this was like, ‘God, I was a fan of his too. Not anymore.’
“This is the type of bad decision you make that turns a lot of people against you. He attacked a bus. Listen, he’s got some beef with Khabib because of the Artem thing that went down. You don’t come into Barclays Center, attack people that are on a bus who are fighting the next day, and the worst part is the women who were on the bus. They’re fighters — Rose is a fighter and Karolina [Kowalkiewicz] is a fighter, but these goons are throwing bike racks and chairs and things like that through the windows of the bus and didn’t care who they hit or who they hurt.”
Chiesa was transported to a local hospital and treated for his injuries. It’s unclear at this time whether or not he’ll be cleared for his fight with former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis on the pay-per-view portion of Saturday’s event.
“I don’t think anybody is going to be huge Conor McGregor fans after this,” White said before adding he had no explanation for why McGregor acted the way he did. “I don’t know if he’s on drugs, or what his deal is but to come and do this and act like this — you’re talking about a guy who has a baby. He just had a kid. This is how you’re acting? You have a son at home.”
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When asked if he wants to be in business with McGregor right now, White didn’t sound too enthusiastic regardless of the Irish superstar’s drawing power.
“I mean, do you want to be in business with Conor McGregor right now?” White said. “Do you want to chase this guy around for interviews and buy his fights? Do you? I don’t think anybody is going to want to right now. I think everybody is going to be pretty disgusted with Conor McGregor right now.
“Listen, you don’t like Khabib and you don’t like what happened or whatever? Then fight Khabib. You can come in [to the UFC] and do it legally.”
White said at the official UFC 223 pre-fight press conference Wednesday that McGregor would “100 per cent” return to fight in the UFC in 2018 — he hasn’t competed in MMA since November 2016 — but after Thursday’s incident it’s unclear if White still believes that.
“The police are going to take care of Conor,” White said. “The police are going to handle Conor, and I know that a handful of people here already that are filing lawsuits against Conor McGregor. God knows how many lawsuits he’s going to have by the time this is done.
White concluded by saying: “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. It’s part of the business 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.”
