Conor McGregor has admitted that he was “in the wrong” after he punched a man in a Dublin pub in April.
A video emerged appearing to show the 31-year-old punch a 50-year-old man in the Marble Arch pub, with the man involved since labelling former UFC two-weight champion McGregor “a bully with money” as reported by the Sun.
But in his first interview since the emergence of the video, the Dubliner has taken responsibility for the incident and vowed that he is trying to “do better”.
“In reality, it doesn’t matter what happened there. I was in the wrong,” McGregor said in an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.
A video of the incident has gone viral – and the 50-year-old victim is happy that the fighter’s reputation has took a hit over it, describing the fighter as a ‘bully with money.”
The video shows the Crumlin fighter holding a bottle of his own brand Proper No. Twelve whiskey at the Marble Arch bar in Drimnagh, Dublin.
McGregor is the biggest moneymaker in UFC history but here are no fights scheduled or even likely to be on the horizon. His last fight was a humbling tap out to World champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 last October.
Since his absence from the octagon grew, so too did his media profile and for all the wrong reasons. The well publised pub punch notwithstanding, there was also in March his arrest for smashing a man’s cellphone outside a Miami nightclub. Those charges were later dropped. Just weeks later it was reported that McGregor was under investigation for sexual assault.
UFC lightweight Conor McGregor joins Ariel Helwani on SportsCenter for his first interview since October of 2018. McGregor proclaims that he is ready to return to fight in the UFC and is very eager to do so. He also tells Helwani that he is wanting to come back to fight for respect and redemption after his recent run-ins with the law.
