Rose Namajunas Refuses Conor McGregor’s Online Apology: ‘F**k That’
Many prominent MMA personalities were affected by Conor McGregor‘s chaotic Brooklyn outburst two days before April 7’s UFC 223.
The attack, where the former champion threw a metal dolly threw a bus containing rival Khabib Nurmagomedov, left two fighters injured and unable to compete on the event and also forced a third fight off the card when McGregor friend (and accomplice) Artem Lobov was pulled from his scheduled fight with Alex Caceres.
But the incident, which eventually saw McGregor incarcerated for assault charges overnight and awaiting court this June, almost had a far more impactful effect on the event, as UFC women’s strawweight Rose Namajunas was in the bus and visibly shaken by the events, to the point where she even considered not fighting Joanna Jedrzejczyk on the card.
While “Thug” Rose did decide to fight on and beat her rival by unanimous decision, things are still not good between her and McGregor. According to Outside the Cage on Twitter, Namajunas had a seething reply to “The Notorious” when he tried to apologize to her on Instagram, simply saying, “F*** that, call Pat,” in reference to her longtime partner Pat Barry.
Namajunas also addressed the incident during a recent appearance on The Jim & Sam Show (via MMA Mania), noting that the situation is far from ideal because even though she picked up a second victory over a woman who just months ago was talked up as the best female MMA fighter of all-time, she’s only asked about the attack, so that accomplishment will always be overshadowed by what McGregor did:
“It just sucks because that’s the question that’s always gonna be asked. And it’s like, ‘Look what I did.’”
A fair point from “Thug” Rose to be certain because her second consecutive win over a historic women’s champion is undoubtedly being overshadowed by a needless, violent event that not only injured innocent people but forced three fights off of the most anticipated pay-per-view of the year thus far.
The focus will likely always remain on McGregor and his antics from the weekend, however, and it’s hard to look past Namajunas’ desire for her efforts in the cage to be focused on rather than a crime committed by a superstar who has shown he cares about little else than going off the rails in his post-Mayweather period of debauchery.
In that sense, you can see why she isn’t accepting McGregor’s apology.