Damage control? No, UFC president Dana White had to immediately move well beyond damage control following Conor McGregor’s thuggish actions following Thursday’s UFC 223 Media Day at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
McGregor and a group of individuals that included UFC 223 fighter Artem Lobov stormed the arena, making their way down to the loading docks where UFC 223 fighters were loading into vans to travel back to the fighter hotel. Once on scene, McGregor and his crew went berserk, throwing an appliance dolly and a chair into van windows, injuring and forcing Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg out of their respective UFC 223 bouts.
There’s really very little that can be done to explain that away. White didn’t try when making the media rounds on Friday morning, and he said that McGregor didn’t either.
“We talked yesterday before he turned himself in,” White said Friday morning on FS1’s First Things First. “It’s not that I don’t think he understood what happened, it’s just that he justified it. It was justified to him. [McGregor said] ‘Listen, I’m sorry about Mike [Chiesa] and I’m sorry about Rose [Namajunas] and whoever else, but this had to be done.’”
That still left White with the unenviable task of facing numerous questions about the incident, which he explained was much bigger than all the questions he’s been fielding about whether or not he is going to fire McGregor.
“People keep asking me, ‘Are you going to fire him? Are you going to fire him?’ and this is way bigger than are you going to fire a guy. This is criminal,” White continued. “Other fighters, some of our staff – one of our security guys broke a knuckle and was punched repeatedly by guys. We have the whole footage.”
This is definitely a situation that McGregor isn’t going to be able to will away the way he willed his way into a fight with Floyd Mayweather. In fact, his fight with Mayweather is likely going to be funding the fallout from McGregor’s media day meltdown.
Dana White Talks Conor McGregor’s Meltdown on FS1’s First Things First
“When Conor found out, he loaded up the plane full of guys from Ireland, flew over here, and coordinated this attack.” @DanaWhite explains what led to the McGregor incident at Barclays pic.twitter.com/IiGZXnQucW
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) April 6, 2018
(Video courtesy of UFC on FOX | Viewing may be limited by broadcast rights restrictions)
Dana White Talks Conor McGregor on ESPN’s Get Up!
(Video courtesy of ESPN | Viewing may be limited by broadcast rights restrictions)