Conor McGregor appeared in court on Thursday, addressing charges related to an alleged altercation.
The alleged incident reportedly occurred at the Barclays Center during April 2018, ahead of UFC 223. The incident reportedly stemmed from a previous altercation between McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov and Russian fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Video footage taken after a news conference appeared to show McGregor throwing a sack trolley at a bus full of fellow UFC fighters.
Two UFC fighters – Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg – were injured by shards of glass during the incident. As a result, they were prevented from competing in scheduled UFC 223 bouts that weekend.
The New York City Police Department arrested McGregor following the incident. He was later released from custody on $50k bail following a short arraignment on charges of assault and criminal mischief.
29-year-old McGregor made a return to New York on Thursday, where he made a 45-second appearance at Brooklyn Criminal Court. His legal team told the court of their intentions to negotiate a plea.
The brief session was then dismissed. Both McGregor and co-defendant – MMA fighter Cian Cowley – have been ordered to return for another hearing on 26 July according to the BBC.
Following the hearing, the former two-weight champion spoke outside the court regarding his regrets over his alleged charges:
I regret my actions that led to today,
I understand the seriousness of this matter and I’m hopeful this will get worked out. Thank you, everyone.
It is anticipated both defendants will enter their actual plea during this next hearing. Negotiations between McGregor’s legal team and the District Attorney are ongoing.
Speaking with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, manager Audie Attar said:
Today we’re here to focus on court, we’re not going to focus on any future plans until we handle this matter,
Right now we’re in good negotiations with the district attorney, so we’re going to focus on that and we’ll focus on the future later.
Attar declined to comment on the details of the plea agreement, and expressed hope of McGregor’s legal situation being resolved following the next hearing.
Attar also declined to discuss any potential matchups:
We’re going to keep all that right now on the backburner and really focus on this matter only and we’ll focus on all that other stuff later,
McGregor will be meeting with UFC president Dana White on Monday 18 June 2018, at an undisclosed location, to talk about McGregor’s career going forward.
Speaking with TMZ, White said:
I don’t know whats gonna happen. I don’t know what Conor has planned. I don’t know what Conor and his team have worked on.
McGregor was beaten by Floyd Mayweather in a high profile boxing match during August 2017 at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
McGregor has not competed in the UFC since November 2016, when he knocked out former two-time Bellator Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.
McGregor’s UFC lightweight title was officially stripped from him in April 2017.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.