Conor McGregor threw a metal dolly through a bus window leading up to UFC 223, injuring two fighters and resulting in his subsequent arrest by the New York Police Department. You better believe if it had been anyone else involved in the attack they’d be gone from the UFC already. But for the company’s biggest cash cow McGregor, the same rules don’t apply to him.
While UFC president Dana White talked a strong game immediately following the incident, his language softened considerably a few days later. Three weeks have now passed and while it may seem doubtful that any serious punishment of McGregor from the UFC is forthcoming, White explained what’s up in an interview with TMZ Sports.
“We’ll see,” White said. “We’ll see what happens. He’s gotta be punished by the law first, so let’s see what happens in New York. He’s gotta go through that first.”
McGregor is facing three charges of misdemeanor assault and one felony criminal mischief charge, and is set to return to New York on June 14 for his day in court. While it remains to be seen if the former double champ will go to jail, a felony conviction could seriously hinder his ability to travel and fight outside of Ireland. There’s also the inevitable civil lawsuits McGregor is bound to face from the fighters, UFC employees, and arena security injured in the bus attack brawl.
As for the UFC, a fine and/or a suspension are probably still a possibility, but there’s no way the promotion is firing McGregor over the incident. And hey, when you consider the fact that the UFC takes the vast majority of the money generated by McGregor’s pay-per-views, keeping him under contract is actually way worse as a punishment than releasing him ever could be.
If you needed more evidence that Conor McGregor ain’t going anywhere, White was more than happy to discuss McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, the man Conor was attempting to get to when he attacked that bus.
“If you do a fight that big, you gotta do it in Vegas,” White said. “Khabib will fight in Russia at some point but it won’t be that fight. It’s too big … you’ve gotta do it in Vegas.”
McGregor and his people previously set the rough date for his return as September. Considering the amount of money to be made off the very real feud between McGregor and Nurmagomedov (and the Mayweather-McGregor rematch in the UFC), we doubt that timeline is going to change much.
(Via TMZ Sports)
