Conor McGregor turns himself in to NYPD after incident at UFC 223 media day
An agitated Conor McGregor stormed the UFC media day event at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Thursday, slamming a metal barrier toward a van occupied by McGregor’s possible replacement as lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Late Thursday, McGregor turned himself into the New York Police Department although no formal charges had been filed, a spokesman for the agency told the Los Angeles Times.
The fracas left fighter Michael Chiesa with a cut on the top of his head that required hospitalization. Video ofthe incident showed McGregor fleeing the arena in an SUV with a group of male acquaintances.
Recent flyweight title challenger Ray Borg posted on Twitter that Chiesa was injured when McGregor threw a glass at the bus (not van) carrying the fighters.
Ireland’s McGregor, who hasn’t appeared in a UFC octagon since becoming the organization’s first-ever simultaneous two-belt champion in November 2016, issued a profane tweet Wednesday after UFC President Dana White said he would strip McGregor’s lightweight belt due to inactivity.
Barring any difficulty at Friday’s weigh-in, the belt will go to the winner of Saturday night’s UFC 223 main event pitting Russia’s Nurmagomedov (25-0) against featherweight champion Max Holloway (19-3).
In video clips that emerged on social media, an intense McGregor and his group swarm a van leaving the media-day event and hurriedly look for — and grab — objects to apparently be aimed at the vehicle.
White, after telling reporters Wednesday that he believed “100 percent” that McGregor would fight in the UFC again this year, was outraged by the Thursday incident.
He told a reporter in a video discussion that the fighter will likely “ be sued beyond belief,” by those hurt or threatened by the recklessness. “This was a real bad career move for him.”
McGregor, no stranger to WWE-type promotion skills, was fined in Nevada for throwing filled energy drink cans at 2016 opponent Nate Diaz at a news conference, and his sharp wit and crass talk helped make his novelty boxing loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year the second-most lucrative combat sporting event of all time.
This is different.
Beyond the injury to Chiesa (14-3), who was due to fight former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis on Saturday night, the UFC immediately canceled the early preliminary fight of McGregor’s Russian stablemate Artem Lobov, who was seen with McGregor during the fray, as well as Borg’s fight with Brandon Moreno.
Nurmagomedov returned to his hotel after the incident and declined to immediately discuss the matter.
“Our team doesn’t throw chairs at buses full of fighters and women.” his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, said. “We’re focused on weight cut now, and fighting,”
Last month, Nurmagomedov told The Times that McGregor’s behavior away from the octagon troubles him, and said he hopes to stand as a more worthy champion.
“Outside the cage, they’re garbage — very dirty guys,” Nurmagomedov said.
Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire
UPDATES:
1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with New York police saying there was no arrest warrant issued for Conor McGregor.
2:55 p.m.: This article has been updated with details throughout.
This article was originally published at 12:20 p.m.
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