Dana White Defends Conor McGregor Over Bus Attack
Dana White defends Conor McGregor over his actions that led to him attacking a bus full of fighters. Obviously, the UFC President knows that this is a huge part of the story of the UFC 229 pay-per-view main event. This is what kick-started this fight being made between Conor McGregor and current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The Incident
Back in April during fight week of the UFC 223 pay-per-view event, McGregor and several members of his entourage decided to fly from Ireland to Brooklyn, New York to get revenge on Nurmagomedov.
It all started once the UFC lightweight champion got into an argument with McGregor’s training partner, Artem Lobov, earlier that week. This led to McGregor attacking the fighter bus that had Nurmagomedov on and he was arrested as a result, then was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief. He then accepted a plea deal.
Staging
White is tired of hearing that the Las Vegas-based promotion staged this incident and voiced his displeasure.
“Anybody who thinks this is staged, it is the dumbest (expletive) thing I have ever heard,” White said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. “How did we stage this? How could we possibly have (expletive) staged this? This is real (expletive).”
Dana White Defends Conor McGregor
The UFC President also defended the former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion for his actions, which is a bit surprising due to the comments he made at the time.
“He loaded a G650 plane full of goons and flew over here to do what he did,” White said. “That’s the way he is built. You attack my friend, we attack you. That’s some Dublin street (expletive) right there, that’s what that is. For guys who didn’t grow up that way, you can’t wrap your head around that. But for a guy like Conor where he comes from, that’s how you retaliate.”
White Admits
White did admit that the incident did help the promotion for this fight as he needs a storyline for people to care about.
“People say it definitely (helped the promotion) — yeah, because it all worked out,” he added. “And yes, it is definitely part of the storyline. Every weekend we do a fight and there is a reason why two people are fighting. This reason is pretty (expletive) good.”
