Dana White has Spoken to Conor McGregor. Here is What He Had to Say…
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you know now that Conor McGregor has been remanded in custody by the NYPD. The Irishman has been charged with three counts of criminal mischief and one count of assault. Teammate Cian Cowley is facing similar charges.
The UFC is not impressed. McGregor’s training partner Artem Lobov has already been pulled from the UFC 223 card for his role in last night’s disgraceful events. Both Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg have had their fights canceled after the pair were injured in the bus attack. A UFC company employee was also injured.
UFC President Dana White called it the “most disgusting event in the history of the company.” Now he has gone even further. He spoke on the First Things First show and discussed his communication with McGregor since the crazy incident. Spoiler: the conversation between the two men did not go well.
Planned Attack
First of all, Dana White has had to deal with his fair share of problems created by fighters. Jon Jones has his own filing cabinet full of misdemeanors. However, nothing directly involving the company like this has ever happened. White said:
“These type of things happen. Guys will say things. Push, shove, grab each other, these things have happened. People have slapped each other people have done this… But when you bring in 20 hoodlums who flew in from Ireland to basically do this at our event. He flew them all on a private jet, he flew them in to do this.”
According to the UFC boss, the attack was nothing to do with McGregor being stripped of his lightweight title. The entire reason was that Khabib Nurmagamedov and his team had intimidated Conor’s friend and training partner Artem Lobov.
Worst Conversation
White said that he had communicated with McGregor prior to his arrest, by text. It was without a doubt the worst conversation of their often fractious relationship. McGregor showed no remorse for his motives at all.
“Conor and I talked through text yesterday. Obviously, the worst conversation we’ve ever had. But yeah we talked yesterday before he turned himself in. It’s not that I think he didn’t understand what happened. It’s that he justified it. It was justified to him.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4y8sYs6k8
No Excuse
According to White, McGregor was furious with the UFC president’s media response after the attack took place. Sensationally, he tried to further justify his actions and told White that he was out of line. Allegedly McGregor was particularly angry with the theories he may have taken drugs.
“He wasn’t happy with my interview and some of the things that I said so we got into it more about that. They feel like these guys attacked his friend and that this needed to be done.”
However, McGregor did appear to show remorse for the injuries that his team afflicted to innocent bystanders on the bus. The UFC employee had his knuckles broken, while Ray Borg got glass in his eye. Meanwhile, Michael Chiesa suffered lacerations on his face. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Fingers crossed it doesn’t again.
