One person is reported as injured after Irish UFC star Conor McGregor stormed into a press conference in New York, causing chaos. UFC President Dana White states he is "disgusted" and claims a warrant is now out for McGregor's arrest.
On Wednesday, Conor McGregor learned that he is to lose his UFC lightweight title and he is not one bit impressed. Such his is anger, the Irish sports star turned up with his entourage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday and caused chaos with railings being thrown at a bus and car windows shattered.
Storming into the UFC 233 press conference, McGregor is shown walking into an elevator in a surprise appearance.
Read more: Conor McGregor loses it, punches official after jumping into Dublin ring
Footage later uploaded by UFC fighter Felice Herrig shows McGregor and his crew in the loading bay of the arena, where the fighters present for the press conference are already stationed on the buses ready to leave.
Conor McGregor throwing a dolly at the bus @TheNotoriousMMA @arielhelwani pic.twitter.com/nkH1zlPnIt
— Style Street (@StyleStreetCo) April 5, 2018
It then appears to show McGregor picking up a railing and throwing it at a bus.
Conor McGregor. Picks up guard rail. Attempts to throw it at bus. ABSOLUTE CHAOS IN NEW YORK. #UFC223 (Via Felice Herrig's IG story) pic.twitter.com/JYQZD7jtKP
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) April 5, 2018
Conor McGregor and members of his team showed up at the Barclays Center at the very end of media day moments ago. There was an altercation with some of the departing fighters who are competing on the card.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 5, 2018
I’m told from people who were in the van that as the van was driving off, they started banging on the windows before security broke it all up.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 5, 2018
I’m told that chairs were thrown through the van window and one passenger on the van was injured.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 5, 2018
MMA Junkie reports that Michael Chiesa was injured as a result of the chaos, being cut up by shattered glass.
“Conor went bananas and put a beating on the van that we were in looking for Khabib,” said Chiesa’s coach, Rick Little.
“A million security guards had to restrain him. Mike’s cut up now. He’s got marks on him, for sure. I don’t think too seriously. Everything happened so fast, it was just like we got jumped.”
McGregor is said to have fled the scene straight afterward.
Dana White, President of the UFC, confirmed that a warrant is out for his arrest in an interview with MMA Junkie.
McGregor's lightweight title was threatened on Wednesday as UFC President Dana White revealed that the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Max Holloway will snatch the belt from him following the fight in New York on Saturday night.
“No interim champ. When this fight is over, champion,” White said at the press conference, pointing in the direction of Nurmagomedov and Holloway.
“One of these guys will be the champion.”
Read more: The ghosts and racial tension behind the era of Conor McGregor
“We’re not stripping Tony Ferguson (of the interim title),” White added.
“Tony Ferguson isn’t being stripped. The only person here who is losing a belt is Conor (McGregor). Conor’s losing the belt, these two are fighting for the belt.”
McGregor had some choice words of the decision, taking to Twitter to vent his anger.
You’s’ll strip me of nothing you’s do nothing cunts.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 5, 2018
The incident above is believed to have taken place because one of the fighters in the running to take McGregor's belt Khabib Nurmagomedov is believed to have had an altercation with the Irishman's friend Artem Lobov in a New York hotel on Tuesday. White confirmed that Lobov has now been removed from Saturday's card.