Outside Source
Conor McGregor’s UFC 223 courtroom battle has come to an end.
The former featherweight and lightweight UFC champion agreed to a plea deal at a hearing at Kings County Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday which saw all felony counts against the popular fighter dismissed. Per the terms of the plea deal, McGregor pled guilty to one count of disorderly conduct and will be forced to undergo five days of community service, 1-3 days of an anger management evaluation, and will be required to pay restitution for the damage he inflicted on a UFC fighter bus during UFC 223 fight week. Three orders of protections were also served against McGregor, including two by UFC fighters Ray Borg and Michael Chiesa. McGregor will not be permitted near them until July 2020.
McGregor’s agreement to the plea deal will not affect McGregor’s travel visa, and means “The Notorious” will receive no jail time and will not have a criminal record.
McGregor, 30, incited a melee on April 5 when he and his entourage stormed into Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in a wild scene following UFC 223’s media day and attacked the UFC fighter bus carrying lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. The incident culminated in an infamous sequence that saw McGregor hurl a dolly through a bus window, which ultimately left several fighters shaken up and forced UFC contenders Chiesa and Borg to withdraw from their respective UFC 223 fights as a result of injuries suffered from the broken glass. Chiesa recently told ESPN that “the wheels are in motion” for him to take legal action against McGregor.
McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov was also involved in the melee and was subsequently pulled from his UFC 223 scheduled bout against Alex Caceres.
McGregor and teammate Cian Cowley turned themselves into the New York Police Department on the night of the incident and were released on $50,000 and $25,000 bond, respectively. McGregor faced a potential 12 criminal charges for his role in the melee. Both men informed the court in a June 14 hearing that they planned to negotiate a plea deal.
Cowley also pled guilty to one count of disorderly conduct on Thursday.
With McGregor’s legal issues now resolved, the road toward a UFC return appears clear. UFC president Dana White has repeatedly stated over recent months that the promotion would not move forward with its former two-division champion hanging in legal limbo. With that out of the way, a blockbuster title matchup against Nurmagomedov could very well be the next step, potentially on Nov. 3 at UFC 230 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, or on Dec. 29 for the promotion’s year-end Las Vegas show, UFC 232. A Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor matchup would likely be one of the highest-selling MMA fights of all-time.
McGregor (21-3) has not competed in MMA since defeating Eddie Alvarez via second-round TKO at UFC 205 in Nov. 2016 to become the first-ever UFC champion to simultaneously hold titles in two different divisions. Altogether, the Irishman holds a 9-1 Octagon record and carries a slew of notable victories over the likes of Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, Nate Diaz, Dustin Poirier, and Chad Mendes, among others.
Most recently, McGregor made his professional boxing debut in a big-money match against Floyd Mayweather in Aug. 2017, losing to Mayweather via 10th-round TKO.
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
