Yesterday night, “The Notorious” Conor McGregor was charged with multiple counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief after an incident in the Barclays Center that left fighters and UFC personnel injured during a senseless bus attack.
Multiple news reports confirm that the New York Police Department has formally charged McGregor after turning himself in late Thursday. He is in police custody and is expected to appear in front of a judge today. In addition to the counts for McGregor, one of his SBG Ireland teammates, Cian Cowley, has been charged with one count of assault and one count of criminal mischief.
The UFC issued a full statement:
During todays media event at Barclays Center to promote UFC 223: Khabib vs. Holloway, Conor McGregor and Artem Lobov entered the building accompanied by over a dozen individuals.
The group, which included McGregor and Lobov, vandalized the vehicle that contained a number of athletes competing at the event taking place this weekend. NYPD was immediately alerted and is currently in the process of investigating the situation. UFC is working very closely with the New York Athletic Commission, Barclays Center security and law enforcement authorities. All parties are working together to ensure the highest standard of proper safety precautions are implemented to protect the fans and athletes.
The organization deems todays disruption completely unacceptable and is currently working on the consequences that will follow. Immediately, Lobov has been removed from this weekends card and individuals involved in the incident are not welcome at tomorrows ceremonial weigh-in or Saturdays event at Barclays Center.
McGregor (21-3) showed up at the Barclays Center, the venue for UFC 223 on Saturday, and allegedly was let into the facility by credentialed media members that UFC President Dana White said were from TheMacLife.com McGregors website. Once inside, McGregor, along with members of his team including UFC 223 fighter and teammate Artem Lobov reportedly managed to make their way to the loading dock.
Once there, chaos ensued when McGregor and his entourage can be seen on video going after a bus loaded with UFC 223 fighters, fighter teams and promotion personnel in pursuit of headliner Khabib Nurmagomedov (25-0), who is scheduled to take on featherweight champion Max Holloway (19-3) in the main event. The winner will become the new lightweight champion meaning McGregor will be stripped of the title he won in November 2016, but has yet to defend.
McGregor can be seen on many videos attempting to throw a security barricade at the bus. After he was stopped, he picked up a wheeled dolly and hurled it at the bus window. It shattered the window, and the broken glass cut up the head and face of lightweight fighter Michael Chiesa and sent glass into the eyes of flyweight Ray Borg, according to UFC officials.
Dana White “I’m Done With Conor McGregor – If You Don’t Like Khabib Fight Him – It’s The Most…”
Dana White gives his 1st interview since Conor McGregor and his crew starting throwing chairs and other things at a bus full of UFC fighters including Rose Namajunas, Khabib Nurmagomedov and more!
In the aftermath, Chiesa (14-3) was ruled out of his main-card fight against Anthony Pettis (20-7) due to the cuts. Borg (11-3), too, was removed from his fight against Brandon Moreno (14-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC) on the prelims. In addition, White already had removed Lobov (13-14) from his featherweight fight against Alex Caceres (13-11) for his alleged participation in the attack.
That means three fights in total were scrapped as a result of McGregor and his crews alleged attack on the bus, taking the event from 13 fights to 10 just two days before the show.
McGregor’s interest in the UFC 223 fighters mighty stem from the fact that the winner will have the lightweight title he currently holds due to his inactivity. However, on Wednesday, his teammate Lobov had an altercation with Nurmagomedov at the host hotel which may have been the catalyst for the incident.
White told reporters in Brooklyn the attack on the bus was the most disgusting thing that has ever happened in the history of the company.
It seems imminent that McGregor will be cut from the UFC even though he is clearly their biggest star. This is part of a pattern of lawlessness that has followed McGregor’s career since he has been in the limelight.
Last November, McGregor was feeling himself during the UFC’s main rival promotion, Bellator, at an event in Dublin, Ireland after his teammate Charlie Ward scored a first-round TKO. “The Notorious” did the unthinkable and hopped the cage fence into the fighting surface after running around the cage. If that wasn’t enough, McGregor took a swipe at a Bellator employee who tried to curtail his entrance over the fence. After jumping into his teammate’s arms and launching him onto the canvas, McGregor went after referee Marc Goddard, who shoved him off to officiate the final decision.
McGregor has been feeling himself prior to and definitely after his boxing debut loss to Floyd “Money” Mayweather. As the only fighter in the UFC to hold two belts simultaneously in two different weight classes, albeit briefly, McGregor knows his worth but he has allowed it to alter his judgment.
He has gained his fame in part to being racially exploitative and is instituting a culture of negativity that literally has retired some of the game’s greats. When he first insulted black women during the May Mac World Tour “press conference” at the Barclays Center, it was a violation of the UFC Athletic Code of Conduct created in 2013 and his latest actions are just downright criminal.
Time will tell how this saga unfolds but McGregor, who might have been a perfectly shielded nobody thug in his former life, is now a celebrity thug and yet another example of the adage by street poet laureate The Notorious B.I.G., ‘Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems’. Fitting that it all came to a head in Brooklyn.
