Dana White Says Conor McGregor Was Pulled From UFC 219 After Bellator Incident
UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor caused quite the ruckus when he hopped into the cage at Bellator 187 to celebrate with victorious teammate Charlie Ward.
McGregor was potentially slated to fight at UFC 219, but UFC President Dana White said those plans were canned after the cage hopping incident.
“Listen, the punishment, he was being dealt with by the head of the (Association of Boxing Commissions), and we were going to fight him, regardless of what (McGregor manager) Audie (Attar) says,” White said at a media luncheon. “We were working on a fight for him at the end of the year, and he’s just not ready.”
There’s no word at this time whom McGregor would have faced if he were added to the UFC 219 card.
Besides just hopping into the cage at Bellator 187, the UFC Lightweight Champion got into an altercation with referee Marc Goddard and made contact with Bellator MMA/ABC officials.
Prior to the comments made by White, the UFC fighter’s manager had said that McGregor not competing on UFC 219 had nothing to do with the incident.
UFC 219 takes place on Saturday, December 30 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Cyborg and Holly Holm headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
