Conor McGregor Reaches Plea Agreement in Bus Attack at UFC 223, Free to Return to Fighting
Conor McGregor can finally get back to the business of fighting.
The former UFC two-division champion appeared in a Brooklyn courthouse on Thursday where a plea agreement was reached with prosecutors regarding his assault on a bus back in April that left two fighters and one UFC employee injured.
McGregor stormed through the Barclays Center just a few months ago in an attempt to get at current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was involved in a brief altercation with fellow fighter Artem Lobov earlier in the same week. McGregor and his crew then flew to the United States and ended up smashing a bus carrying UFC fighters back to their hotel as they sought revenge against Nurmagomedov after the incident with their fellow teammate.
McGregor originally faced four separate charges in the incident including a felony for criminal mischief after he led the assault on the bus including a moving dolly being thrown at a window that shattered a huge pane of glass that forced both Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg out of their upcoming fights.
The deal that was announced on Thursday had McGregor pleading guilty to only one charge — disorderly conduct — and all the other charges were dropped.
As part of his plea agreement, McGregor will have to serve five days of community service as well as one to three days of anger management as part of the terms of his release. McGregor was also ordered to pay restitution for the property damage done during the melee and it was later confirmed that the Irish fighter had already taken care of that before the court proceedings.
Finally, three orders of protection were handed out to keep McGregor away from Chiesa, Borg and the one UFC employee who were injured during the bus assault.
Thanks to the plea agreement reached, McGregor will not suffer any problems with traveling into the United States and won’t even have a criminal record as a result of his actions back in April.
“I just want to say I’m thankful to the D.A. and the judge for allowing me to move forward,” McGregor said in statement after the court hearing. “I want to say to my friends, my family, my fans, thank you for the support. Thank you.”
McGregor opted not to make any kind of statement in front of the judge before the verdict was handed out.
With the court case in Brooklyn now closed, McGregor is finally free and clear to resume his fighting career with plans for the former champion to return to action by the end of 2018.
McGregor’s manager Audie Attar made a brief statement as well outside the courthouse while also hinting at upcoming news regarding McGregor’s long awaited return to action.
“I want to say thank you to the court,” Attar said. “Now that this has passed us, we can focus on things that have been on hold for some time. Conor’s been training, he’s in shape, he’s ready to go. So now it’s just about getting back to business, and we hope to have some news to announce very soon.”
Rumors have been swirling that McGregor could fight as early as October in a long awaited showdown with Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in Las Vegas. If that date doesn’t happen, McGregor could face Nurmagomedov at either UFC 230 in New York or UFC 232 in Las Vegas on the card that will close down 2018.
