Showtime Exec Admits Conor McGregor’s Insults Bothered Him

Conor McGregor didn’t just reserve his trash talk for Floyd Mayweather during the May-Mac World Tour to promote last month’s (Sat. August 26, 2017) combat sports mega-event.

“The Notorious One” took aim at “Money’s” body guards, Floyd Mayweather Sr., and Showtime Sports Executive Stephen Espinoza, who got the worst of it when the Irishman labelled him a ‘f*cking weasel’ for supposedly cutting his microphone off on the first leg of the tour.

Now that all is said and done, and Mayweather now owns a 10th round TKO win over McGregor in boxing competition, Espinoza recently joined The MMA Hour to talk about his brief run-in with the UFC lightweight champ on the World Tour. Espinoza admitted that McGregor’s comments towards him irked him a bit, but said he has been called a lot worse by people he respects a lot more than McGregor (quotes via Bloody Elbow):

“It bothered me a little bit. I think anyone who is personally insulted is bothered,” Espinoza said. “But I’ve been called a lot worse by people I respect more than Conor, so that in itself wasn’t a big issue to me. What bothered me about the whole thing was his comments about Showtime.”

What Espinoza disliked more than the comments made directly at him by McGregor, was when the mixed martial arts (MMA) star yelled ‘F Showtime,’ essentially insulting all the men and women who put in tireless hours helping promote the rightfully named “Money Fight”:

“I know my staff and I know the kind of people who work for us,” Espinoza said. “On that timeframe, on those 72 days, there are literally dozens of people who are giving up dinners with their kids, time with their spouses, giving up things that they would rather do with their nights and weekends for the success of this pay per view, which ultimately the bulk of that money is going to Floyd and Conor. And making them both very rich men.”

“So to have Conor insult them, by extension, to say ‘f’ Showtime or whatever, when there’s an entire team of people who are making personal sacrifices to make sure his event is successful and generates money for him, it just seemed a really short-sighted comment and really unprofessional.”