Cian Cowley has admitted that he's not proud of his New York arrest alongside Conor McGregor last year, but says they were just standing up for their pal Artem Lobov.
Cowley, 26, spent a night behind bars with The Notorious, 29, in April of 2018 after the pair were involved in an incident involving a bus carrying McGregor's rival Khabib Nurmgaomedov and a number of other UFC fighters after a press conference.
And speaking exclusively with Irish Mirror ahead of his fight against Maciek Gierszewski at Brave 24 in London later this month, Cowley spoke candidly about the incident saying it was in retaliation to an alleged bust-up involving Khabib and teammate Artem.
He said: "That whole thing, if that had have been two minutes down the road we would have done the same thing, one of our friends was after being attacked by a mob of people.
"There was a group of people that attacked him [Artem Lobov] on his own in the hotel corridor, people forget that it wasn't just out of nowhere, there was a reason for all that.
"We were just standing up for our mate, the way anyone, not just Irish people but anyone in general, would, especially somebody who's a teammate, that you bleed with on the mat.
"Every day we train with him, you're grinding together and then you see something like that going on, there was no second thought, it was just instinct.
"You protect one of your own, you go over there and stand side by side with your own, that was just a case of sticking with him.
"That just happened to be in a different country and then it blew up like that, but it could have been around the corner and it would have been no different."
Cowley, between court dates, had his first fight for Brave Combat Federation, which he won against Daniel Olejniczak in Belfast's SSE Arena with McGregor watching on from the crowd.
"That was a mad few months, when I look back on it I was fighting while all that was happening, but I never thought [of pulling out].
"I'm not proud of the New York incident, far from it, but that did blow my profile up a little bit."
Cowley pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge and got three days of community service and anger management.
Meanwhile McGregor agreed to five days of community service and to take anger management classes after pleading guilty to the charge of disorderly conduct and returned to the cage last October.
Cian now faces his fourth fight since the incident, when he competes at an invite-only MMA event for a crowd of celebrities, businessmen, politicians and influencers in the co-main event of Brave 24 on July 25th at London's Copper Box Arena.
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
