Referee who Conor McGregor attacked issues statement - 'I operate with integrity'

The mixed martial arts (MMA) world was thrown for a loop yesterday (Fri., Nov. 10, 2017) when UFC superstar Conor McGregor crashed Bellator MMA’s event in Dublin, Ireland, and made us all wonder just how much “Notorious” can really get away with.

In case your head was under a rock, McGregor invaded the Bellator cage after his teammate Charlie Ward won via knockout. The UFC golden boy ended up getting into an altercation with referee Marc Goddard and slapped an in-cage official. Bellator took full advantage of the situation and used McGregor’s melee to promote Bellator 187 here in America.

This isn’t the first time “Notorious” has had a run-in with Goddard. Remember, Goddard warned McGregor to get back to his seat after the Irishman was acting as an unofficial cornerman for teammate Artem Lobov’s fight against Andre Fili at UFC Fight Night 118 last month.

Now, Goddard is being thrust right back into the spotlight after trying to handle McGregor’s antics this weekend at Bellator 187. While some may argue that Goddard aggressively approached McGregor after the UFC champion embraced Ward, the referee recently took to Twitter to shed light on his duty as an in-cage official.

At this point, we really don’t know what’s going to come of McGregor’s second encounter with Goddard. Slapping a separate Bellator official isn’t going to help the Irishman’s case in dodging any sort of punishment, but it’s difficult to predict how these things will end up, especially when it comes to a massive star like “Notorious.”

That said, McGregor has been getting himself in hot water lately and for no good reason. After Lobov’s loss to Fili in Poland, McGregor was caught using a homophobic slur to console “Russian Hammer” backstage. Now the 29-year-old is raising more eyebrows around the MMA community by giving off the vibe that he believes he’s entitled to do, and say, whatever he wants, even when it occurs on another promotion’s soil.

Stick with Mania for more McGregor updates and reaction.