NEW YORK — An agitated Conor McGregor stormed the UFC media day event at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Thursday, slamming a metal barrier toward a bus occupied by McGregor’s possible replacement as lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Late Thursday, McGregor turned himself in to 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 of the 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 hand truck at the bus carrying the fighters.
As a result of the attack, three fights on the card have been canceled.
Chiesa’s fight with Anthony Pettis was called off Thursday night, as was Borg’s bout against Brandon Moreno. The UFC immediately canceled the early preliminary fight of McGregor’s Russian stablemate Artem Lobov, who was seen with McGregor during the fray.
Before McGregor turned himself in, Lt. Tarik Sheppard told the Times that “If we see him at the airport, we will stop him.”
Ireland’s McGregor, who hasn’t appeared in a UFC event 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 apparently to 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.
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,” said his manager, Ali Abdelaziz. “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.
“Outside the cage, they’re garbage — very dirty guys,” Nurmagomedov said.
