Dana White Claims Arrest Warrant Out for Conor McGregor After ‘Most Disgusting’ Incident in UFC History
UFC president Dana White claims that a warrant has been issued for lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s arrest after a melee broke out back stage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday.
“There is a warrant out for Conor McGregor’s arrest,” White stated. “They’re looking for him right now. His plan cannot take off. He cannot leave the state of New York with this warrant, they’ll be ground. I’m assuming eventually if they don’t catch him, he’ll turn himself in. You can imagine he’s going to be sued beyond belief and this was a real bad career move for him.”
Representatives from the New York Police Department confirmed to MMANytt that an investigation is underway into the incident involving McGregor and his crew but no arrests have been made or warrants issued at this time.
According to White, McGregor showed up at the arena unannounced and was let into the building by members of the TheMacLife.com — a site owned and operated by McGregor — who were there as credentialed media at an event held at the arena just before the incident unfolded.
Once McGregor was let into the building, he proceeded to storm the buses escorting the fighters out of the arena as he was reportedly looking for main event fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was involved in an altercation with McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov earlier this week.
From there, McGregor and his team started throwing all sorts of objects at the bus with at least two different windows being shattered — one of the apparently caused several cuts to lightweight contender Michael Chiesa, who was then taken to a hospital for treatment.
“What happened here today is Conor and approximately 20 guys were let in through the doors by the MacLife guys, who were credentialed here,” White explained. “They opened the doors for them, through an entrance, they stormed the building, got down to the loading docks where the fighters were getting onto the buses and started to attack the buses. Throwing trash cans and dollies and things like that.
“Broke one of the windows and cut Michael Chiesa really bad. He cut his head, he cut his face. Rose Namajunas apparently was almost hit, she’s super upset right now and basically left and walked back to the hotel. Hurt one of our employees, broke one of our employees’ knuckles and other injuries. Obviously everybody’s shaken up when 30 thug storm [an arena]. These guys are all cutting weight and getting ready for a fight.”
Sources told MMANytt that UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas was shake up by the incident but she’s physically OK after nearly being hit by an object thrown during the melee.
There’s no word yet on whether or not Chiesa will still be able to compete on Saturday night in his fight against Anthony Pettis, which was scheduled for the UFC 223 pay-per-view main card.
In addition to that, White also confirmed that Lobov has been pulled from his fight at UFC 223 against Alex Caceres as he was reportedly involved in the melee that ensued after McGregor and his entourage arrived at the Barclays Center.
“This is the most disgusting thing that has every happened in the history of the company,” White said about the incident.
Stay tuned for further updates as this situation develops…
