Nick Baldwin / YoutubeConor McGregor was caught on camera using a homophobic slur following Artem ‘The Russian Hammer’ Lobov’s fight at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 118.
McGregor had flown in to watch his friend, Lobov, fight in Gdansk, Poland against Andre ‘Touchy’ Fili and managed, of course, to cause a stir even before the bout ended.
With less than a minute left in the second round, referee Marc Goddard paused the fight to speak to McGregor, who had spent the previous nine minutes screaming words of encouragement to Lobov from the crowd.
According to Forbes, Goddard said:
What’s got into you, man? C’mon. Sit down, please. Be a professional.
Even with McGregor’s encouragement, Lobov was unable to get the best of Fili, who took the unanimous decision.
Fili earned three 30-27 scores on the judges’ cards.
Artem Lobov walks into the cage and they cut to Conor McGregor roaming cageside telling him to attack Andre Fili’s body. PME coming up.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 21, 2017
MARC GODDARD JUST SCOLDED CONOR MCGREGOR!
"WHAT'S GOT INTO YOU MATE? ACT PROFESSIONAL"
LMAO #UFCGdansk— Justin Golightly (@SecretMovesMMA) October 21, 2017
After the fight, McGregor walked Lobov to the dressing room area of the Ergo Arena and it was as the pair walked backstage, McGregor was caught on camera using the homophobic slur.
He is heard calling Fili a f*ggot.
Totally, totally uncalled for.
Conor and Artem backstage, choice words from McGregor.. #UFCGdansk pic.twitter.com/5P17nBETHH
— McDuckMMA (@McDuckMMA) October 21, 2017
McGregor has been away from the sport for a while, after making his boxing debut in a hotly-anticipated fight against Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather back in August.
During the press tour for their huge fight, Mayweather apologised for using the same, homophobic remark against McGregor while in London, promoting their Las Vegas fight.
Mayweather said:
Like I said before, it’s certain boundaries we just don’t cross.
It’s OK if he wants to say certain things. Even in the press tour when I said something, I didn’t want to be negative towards lesbians or gays when I said something to him. So, I apologise.
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While he’s been away for some time now, McGregor seems to have confirmed his intention to fight UFC lightweight champion Tony Ferguson in a one word tweet, taunting ‘El Cucuy’.
The post, which he also shared on Instagram, contains only one word, ‘Tony’ and included a picture of Conor as a Grand Theft Auto-style character driving a speedboat while holding a gun.
Since his knock out loss to Floyd Mayweather back in August at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, speculation has been rife about McGregor fighting Ferguson and this tweet seems to confirm it.
Tony pic.twitter.com/IhPaemJP30
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 13, 2017
A tweet from McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, added further fuel to the fire when he tweeted ‘Here we go…’ along with a link to Conor’s original tweet.
President of the UFC, Dana White, has also indicated a Ferguson/McGregor match up makes the most ‘sense’, following Ferguson’s victory over Kevin Lee at UFC 216, which saw him win the Interim Lightweight Championship.
Ferguson’s been vocal about taking on the champion, as well as telling MMAjunkie Radio this week how Conor needs to defend his title.
Here we go… https://t.co/GmQNImYuwk
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) October 13, 2017
He said:
What (McGregor) needs to do is defend or vacate. That dude’s got like less than a month.
I mean compared to what UFC rules state, he’s got a year to start defending his belt. I’m more then ready for December.
He said he wants to fight in 2017. I think the fans deserve it. I think I deserve it.
Should the fight happen it’ll most likely take place at UFC 219 on December 30, 2017.
