McGregor McRetires? No. But let's talk about him anyway.

[Keith Houchen]

Yeah, they are a fee upfront deal. Although I imagine he will get his dinner thrown in for free as well.

[Gooner]

I wasn't sure where to put this information but thought this be the best place. There's an evening with Conor McGregor as he sits down with Ariel Helwani being shown tonight on BT Sport 1 at 22:00pm tonight, I just seen on the planner short while ago, it says it's first time showing too, so thought I'd share in case no one knew or seen before.

[BigJag]

This must be the thing they did in Manchester. Funnily enough, Mayweather is doing his evening with show. Around the UK at the moment.

[David]

I figured it would probably be better to try and contain all the Conor talk to one thread, as he'll no doubt be in the news over the coming few months. So, with that said;

Quote

So Mcgregor's court hearing is June 14th. Does anyone know a lot about this sort of thing? Is he likely to just get community service and a fine? So long as the UFC are happy to employ him (which let's face it, they will be) we'll see him fighting at the end of Summer.

Despite the furore surrounding the whole carry-on, Conor should probably get a hefty fine and maybe community service. He's a first-time offender with a clean record, and that should count for something. 

Now that the dust has settled it's probably worth trying to be a bit more objective. The dude didn't try to kill or rape anyone, he lost the plot and caused criminal damage and minor injury to a few people. Not that I'm downplaying what he did, but we need to keep it in perspective I think.

However, who the Judge and where this happened will play a big part in how this all goes down.

MMA is relatively new to the State of New York, and it saw considerable resistance from some pretty influential people.

I wouldn't say that it's outwith the realms of possibility that we see a Judge who is out to make a name for themselves and figures that by throwing the book at McGregor they can "send out a message" that any barbaric cage fighters who want to act up on their turf will be dealt with appropriately. 

As much as I dislike McG I hope that doesn't happen, if only because his other half and his kid doesn't deserve to go through that kind of thing.

We'll see how it plays out I guess, but I fully expect that if he does get a fine and community service that he'll be back in the Octagon before the year is out, making money for his bosses.

[the_mole]

Most lawyers (that MMA journalists have spoken too in Ney York) are saying this will be rolled in to one charge then he'll get nothing more than a fine and at most community service. His celebrity might mean he has to speak to kids or some shit, rather than sweeping streets or whatever.

They basically said this isn't that serious (to what they normally see), it's a first offence and they'll probably be able to keep him fighting in the US.

Edited April 9, 2018 by the_mole

[David]

Again, it really depends on how certain key figures play it in New York. If this were Vegas then I wouldn't see much of a problem, but we're talking about a State that up until recently was pretty hostile towards the idea of the UFC being sanctioned.

Case in point, New York State Athletic Commission executive director Kim Sumbler has issued a statement talking about Charles fucking Manson in the same breath as Conor;

Quote

“He would have to apply for a license first”

“I can’t speculate. It’s like asking me if Charles Manson got released from jail, what would you do? I’m not presented with that case yet. 

“I have too many other things to think about.”

Now, I don't want to sound overly negative, but that doesn't sound like the kind of person who's going to laugh all of this off and let McG roll with a small fine and a slap on the wrist.

Charles fucking Manson?!?

Edited April 9, 2018 by David

[Dead Mike]

It's less the court case & more whatever punishment the UFC chooses to dish out (if any?). If there's no consequences for this from the UFC a lot of other fighters are going to be pissed off (and rightly so) after 5 people got put out of competition from this.

[the_mole]

The Athletic commission can do their own thing after but they aren't involved in criminal cases and most lawyers agree this was minimum for a first offense in New York. Who knows what the AC think but if the court do nothing, they can hand out a ban for a bit but they know with the Russian and Irish population in New York that Madison Square Garden card could do $20 million and they aren't so rich they can dismiss that money.

[Carbomb]

He should face a ban of at least a year. As a crime, it may be light, but he also brought the sport into disrepute (or, in the eyes of the New York prohibitionist die-hards, further disrepute), so the commission and the UFC need to show they're not soft on this kind of behaviour.

Not to mention that if Semtex can be banned from their roster for life for just breaking sporting rules, this sort of thing just can't be condoned. Although this has already been an issue since Jon Jones' first couple of fuck-ups.

[David]

4 minutes ago, the_mole said:

The Athletic commission can do their own thing after but they aren't involved in criminal cases and most lawyers agree this was minimum for a first offense in New York. Who knows what the AC think but if the court do nothing, they can hand out a ban for a bit but they know with the Russian and Irish population in New York that Madison Square Garden card could do $20 million and they aren't so rich they can dismiss that money.

The Russian and Irish population were in New York all during the time when the Commission refused to allow the UFC in, this all runs deeper than a couple of million quid being made. I'm hoping the fact that Frank and Lorenzo are no longer involved has put an end to the Union disputes that were behind a lot of the issues with New York, but the old boxing heads and their buddies will no doubt be looking to see if they can make life tough for both McGregor and the UFC.

2 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

He should face a ban of at least a year. As a crime, it may be light, but he also brought the sport into disrepute (or, in the eyes of the New York prohibitionist die-hards, further disrepute), so the commission and the UFC need to show they're not soft on this kind of behaviour.

Not to mention that if Semtex can be banned from their roster for life for just breaking sporting rules, this sort of thing just can't be condoned. Although this has already been an issue since Jon Jones' first couple of fuck-ups.

You're absolutely right, of course. He should face a ban of a year, but we both know he won't. It'll likely be six months and some sort of fine.

[the_mole]

Carbomb he wasn't even fighting, they can't ban him for anything, they can refuse to give him a license but just like Mike Tyson had to do, someone will run a Conor card in their state.

This right now is a New York criminal case and a minor one at that.

[Carbomb]

Just now, the_mole said:

Carbomb he wasn't even fighting, they can't ban him for anything, they can refuse to give him a license but just like Mike Tyson had to do, someone will run a Conor card in their state.

This right now is a New York criminal case and a minor one at that.

Howay - you know that simply isn't true. There have been plenty of cases of sportsmen being banned from their respective sports for disreputable behaviour outside the game, like violent assault or corruption or criminal damage. Not to mention that what he did also did affect the actual fighting - he injured fighters completely uninvolved with his and KN's feud, cost them a chunk of their livelihood that they'd been working hard for, and caused a lot of disturbances to the card. 

[the_mole]

3 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Howay - you know that simply isn't true. There have been plenty of cases of sportsmen being banned from their respective sports for disreputable behaviour outside the game, like violent assault or corruption or criminal damage. Not to mention that what he did also did affect the actual fighting - he injured fighters completely uninvolved with his and KN's feud, cost them a chunk of their livelihood that they'd been working hard for, and caused a lot of disturbances to the card. 

I was talking about the New York Athletic Commission can't ban him for that, maybe the UFC can but even then they aren't ran like UEFA, NBA, PGA etc and rely on Athletic Commissions but all commissions run differently, do you think Russia bans him? The BBoC tried to ban. Haye Vs Chisora and the Luxembourg commission sanctioned it in the UK.

[David]

8 minutes ago, the_mole said:

I was talking about the New York Athletic Commission can't ban him for that, maybe the UFC can but even then they aren't ran like UEFA, NBA, PGA etc and rely on Athletic Commissions but all commissions run differently, do you think Russia bans him? The BBoC tried to ban. Haye Vs Chisora and the Luxembourg commission sanctioned it in the UK.

The difference is that when one of the legally recognised sanctioning bodies bans a fighter the other State commissions tend to recognise it and refuse them a licence as well. If that wasn't the case we'd see fighters banned by Nevada still fighting in California. We don't though, because they all tend to work together.

If the NYSAC decides to slap McG with a one year ban it'll be interesting to see what the UFC does. The other US-based commissions will honour that ban, so they'd have to take him overseas. And even then, it's a bad look for the company if they do that.

Edited April 9, 2018 by David

[the_mole]

Most will but some won't, which is why Lewis-Tyson was in Memphis or something, as Vegas, New York etc banned it.

The sport has different rules, state to state for gods sake.

Edited April 9, 2018 by the_mole