Dana White opens up - about McGregor's sexual assault allegations

UFC President Dana White claims that he wasn’t aware of the criticism made against the booking of Conor McGregor while he is under investigation for multiple sexual assault allegations.

The New York Times first reported about an sexual allegation against McGregor in March 2019, and later in October also wrote about a second allegation from a different person.

In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Sports‘ Kevin Iole, the UFC President claimed that he knew nothing about the criticism and that he feels that McGregor should be considered innocent until proven guilty (transcript by MMAjunkie)

“I didn’t even know (about the criticism),” Dana White told Iole. “He hasn’t been charged with anything. You can’t accuse somebody and stop them from making a living when they haven’t even been charged of anything.

“Conor McGregor has made a lot of bad decisions in the past several years. He has paid for it. He walked into court and plead guilty to punching that guy in the face in Ireland. He paid for the slapping of the phone out of the thing. He attacked the bus and paid for that.”

McGregor’s “bad decisions” have made international headlines multiple times:

In November 2017, McGregor jumped the cage at a Bellator event and managed to both shove a referee and slap a commissioner.
During the promotional appearances for UFC 223 in April 2018, McGregor and his teammates attacked a bus where Khabib Nurmagomedov was seated. McGregor threw a dolly against the window of the bus, injuring multiple UFC fighters.
On 6 October, 2018, McGregor was involved in the UFC 229 brawl that took place after he was defeated by Khabib in Las Vegas. He was fined and suspended for his involvement.
On 11 March 2019, he took a fan’s phone and smashed it. McGregor was later charged charged with robbery and criminal mischief. The criminal charges were later dismissed.
On 15 August 2019, McGregor punched an elderly man in Dublin and later pleaded guilty.

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Dana White questions the allegations

Accordingly to White, McGregor cannot be judged based on the sexual assault allegations and questions if it is even McGregor that is being accused.

In Ireland, it is against the law to publicize the names of people accused of sexual crimes.

“He’s obviously done some things,” Dana White continued. “He’s been charged and paid and done everything he’s supposed to do. These other things, first of all I don’t even know. Has it said that he’s the guy that’s being accused?”

“Listen, if he was being charged with something right now. It would be a different story. The New York Times have wrote those stories, but those are no other stories out there about Conor McGregor.”

You can check the whole interview here.