Conor McGregor jumps into cage, shoves ref Marc Goddard
After Goddard intervened physically, McGregor shoved the ref and got in his face, before Lobov and others escorted him away.
Bellator 187 took place Friday in Dublin, Ireland. The card was headlined by A.J. McKee vs. Brian Moore, and featured SBGi middleweight Charlie Ward on the prelims.
After Ward defeated John Redmond via KO at 4:59 of Round 1, fellow SBGi founder UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor entered the cage to celebrate. However, he is not a licensed corner, and thus has no right to be there. Veteran referee Marc Goddard and other officials interrupted and indicated McGregor had to leave the cage.
This was Goddard’s second time reigning in McGregor this month. At UFC Gdansk on October 21, Goddard had to stop SBGi fighter Artem Lobov vs. Andre Fili, and tell McGregor to stop coaching from the sidelines.
The first time, McGregor made a “my bad” gesture and simmered down. This time he didn’t.
After Goddard intervened physically, McGregor shoved the ref and got in his face, before Lobov and others escorted him away. Then McGregor doubled down, climbed back up the cage, and when an official tried to intervene, Notorious responded with a slap to the head.
https://twitter.com/DutchFightNet/status/929059905729892352
In an unseemly moment, the official Bellator MMA Twitter account used the ugly moment for marketing.
UFC president Dana White’s opinion on touching the ref is on record. After an incensed Roy Nelson made contact with referee John McCarthy for not stopping a fight sooner, White was blunt.
“There is never, ever a situation where you put your f***ing hands on a referee,” said White. “Ever. You can’t apologize for that.”
While McGregor was not a fighter at the time, and it wasn’t in the UFC, he still had no business being in the cage, and put his f***ing hands on the referee.