LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White said he was happy to hear Conor McGregor’s apology last week and also gave his thoughts on the one topic many felt was overlooked in the former champion’s extensive interview with ESPN.
McGregor issued an apology for an incident that recently came to light but happened back in April, when the UFC star was captured on video punching a man at a pub in Dublin after he apparently rejected McGregor’s offer of a serving of his Proper Twelve whiskey.
White said he and fellow UFC officials weren’t involved in setting up the ESPN interview, but he was pleased McGregor took that step to break his silence.
“Conor and I talk at least a couple times a month, and I think he needed to do that,” White told MMA Junkie on Tuesday night. “I didn’t tell him to do it. He did that on his own, and good for him.”
McGregor spoke openly about other outside-the-cage issues, as well, admitting he has been in the wrong for many of the incidents and has learned valuable lessons along the way. The Irishman also rattled off several potential matchups for his return to the cage, any of which would certainly count among the most anticipated fights of the upcoming UFC schedule.
But there was one question that wasn’t asked in the lengthy ESPN interview. In March, the New York Times reported that McGregor was under investigation in Ireland for an alleged sexual assault last December. McGregor’s team declined comment at the time, and the fighter has yet to address the report.
White said he wasn’t aware of the status of an investigation. White did say that he was given a different account of the event in his minimal discussions with McGregor on the subject.
“I know zero about that,” White said. “To be honest with you, the back-and-forth that I’ve had with him about that (is) that it’s not him, that it’s somebody else. You know? So I don’t know.”
Irish police previously declined MMA Junkie’s multiple requests for comment on the case in January, confirming only the existence of an investigation into an alleged sexual assault of a female that occurred at a hotel in the early hours of Dec. 10, 2018.
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