Former UFC Champ On Conor McGregor: You Cannot Take Someone’s Phone & Smash It
Earlier this week MMA megastar Conor McGregor was arrested on felony strong-arm robbery and criminal mischief charges in Miami Beach, Fla.
McGregor was accused of taking a fan’s phone and smashing it before walking away with the device. The alleged incident took place outside of a hotel at roughly 5 a.m. Today, video of the altercation arose where you could see McGregor stomping on the phone as the man pleaded for the device back while restrained by McGregor’s security.
McGregor released a brief statement saying that patience was ‘a virtue he was still working on.’ His legal team said he would comply with any and all involved law enforcement in a brief statement of their own. When it’s all said and done, McGregor is likely to receive little trouble if his team is able to plea bargain the felony charges down to misdemeanors. That’s a plausible scenario.
Concerning Trends
However, a much more insidious aspect of the situation at play is McGregor’s perceived downfall. Sure, he’s breaking sales records with his Proper Twelve Irish Whiskey and set the UFC pay-per-view record in his UFC 229 loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, but he’s largely gone off the rails since his 2017 loss to Floyd Mayweather. There was the in-cage incident at Bellator. The infamous Brooklyn bus attack for which he just completed community service came the following spring.
As a polarizing ESPN analyst recently said, that all came while he hasn’t won a fight since 2016. It’s definitely concerning, yet his sheer
One former UFC champion believes McGregor simply has to rise above these situations. Miesha Tate told SiriusXM’s ‘MMA Tonight’ this week (via MMA Junkie) that while the man who looked to take a photo of McGregor was annoying, he wasn’t breaking any law:
“It’s not breaking the law, and it’s not illegal. It’s annoying, but it’s not crossing the line.”
Price Of Fame
With that established, Tate admitted the fan was out of line. But it was on McGregor to rise above that, as being confronted by adoring fans was a price of fame. Even if the fan, Ahmed Abdirzak, was overbearing, he was still a fan who had most likely contributed to McGregor’s wealth and fame:
“He is a megastar. He has made himself into one of the most recognizable faces … and he’s making millions and millions and millions of dollars. He’s created that,” Tate said. “So, what I think is that this fan was out of line. He was disrespectful and probably should’ve had a little more common sense to respect the space of Conor. With that being said, I guarantee you that guy’s bought every single one of Conor McGregor’s pay-per-views.
“So figure it out, Conor. Do you appreciate your fans, all of them, the ones that are making you rich, or not? Blow the guy off. That’s kind of what you have to do. It’s the price of fame.”
Tate believe McGregor’s response just wasn’t helping his cause. It’s definitely unfortunate, but also something McGregor had to accept and deal with. Overall, you just can’t take a person’s phone and destroy it:
“It’s not helping anything, and it’s the unfortunate thing that I think megastars and super famous people have to learn to put up with. And Conor’s no exception,” Tate said. “You cannot take a person’s phone and smash it.”
