The NYPD is reportedly looking to speak with MMA fighter and occasional boxer Conor McGregor after cameras caught his violent meltdown at Barclays Center Thursday afternoon.
While sources told the New York Post that the incident might’ve been a “publicity stunt” ahead of UFC 223 on Saturday, the newspaper wrote that cops are looking for McGregor.
McGregor and his entourage are believed to have crashed the media day because the winner of Saturday’s match between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Max Holloway would take McGregor’s lightweight belt. McGregor hasn’t defended the belt since November 2016.
Witnesses claimed that McGregor had attacked a bus occupied by Nurmagomedov, who was spotted moments earlier boarding the bus to leave the event.
“Conor went bananas and put a beating on the van that we were in looking for Khabib,” fighter Michael Chiesa’s coach, Rick Little, told MMAJunkie. “A million security guards had to restrain him.”
Footage posted to Instagram appears to show McGregor and company fleeing the Brooklyn venue in an SUV.
According to the Los Angeles Times, UFC president Dana White told ESPN that Chiesa, who was also listed on Saturday’s card, is being hospitalized; White described Chiesa to TMZ as being “cut to pieces” in the attack. According to the tabloid, Chiesa was injured when an object was thrown through a bus window.
White also said that the UFC is considering removing Artem Lobov from Saturday’s event for his possible participation in the incident.
While White said that a warrant had been issued for McGregor’s arrest, NYPD spokesman recently told Los Angeles Times reporter Lance Pugmire that there’s no such warrant.
White said, “This is bigger than us firing him.”
CLOSER view of the McGregor mayhem at UFC 223 media day pic.twitter.com/k35XKGE41X
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) April 5, 2018
[Featured Image: Conor McGregor/AP Photo/John Locher via AP; Twitter video screengrab (right)]
