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UFC president Dana White revealed his thoughts about the latest arrest of retired superstar Conor McGregor. White talked to the media about the situation on Saturday night after the UFC Fight Night card at UFC APEX in Las Vegas was complete.
“Whether you’re retired or not retired you can get yourself into trouble,” White said per MMA Junkie. “I don’t know enough about the Conor situation. I don’t know about it. I know what you’ve read. I’ve read the same things. Conor is retired, I haven’t talked to him. I’m sure he doesn’t need my help or advice, but if he did he can call.”
McGregor was arrested over the weekend on the French island of Corsica. The retired fighter was accused of indecent exposure and attempted sexual assault.
McGregor’s team provided a statement after he was released to Yahoo Sports and other media denying the allegations.
Still, McGregor’s long history of legal issues, one that includes reaching a plea deal in 2018 after he led a bus attack at a UFC press event in Brooklyn as well as a guilty plea to an assault charge last year in Dublin, added yet another incident to his growing list incidents.
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White: ‘You Just Don’t Understand How Big This Kid Is’
White told reporters on Saturday night that McGregor was such a massive celebrity that it is much more difficult for the 32-year-old to live his life as a regular person than it is for the rest of the world.
“One time when Conor blew up and Conor was massive, he showed up one time at the venue with so much security I was like, ‘This is (expletive) ridiculous, no one needs this much security, this kid is going to blow all his money just on security,’” White said per MMA Junkie.
But White revealed he soon realized he had been wrong.
“Then me and Lorenzo (Fertitta) met up with him one night, and holy (expletive). You just don’t understand how big this kid is until you go out with him. He was literally get mobbed. People were going crazy, screaming and jumping up from blackjack tables and leaving money to go up after Conor. I’d never seen anything like that.”
White: ‘I’m Not Defending Conor’
White said he didn’t know anything more about what happened in France over the weekend than the rest of the world but that McGregor’s life was incredibly difficult to manage due to his celebrity status.
“You guys have to realize – imagine what it’s like in Europe,” McGregor said per MMA Junkie. “There are like old people freaking out when he went by. It wasn’t just young people. It was old people.”
White seems to believe that McGregor’s lifestyle could at least be partially attributed to all the issues the fighter seems to attract in his life.
“That kinda life, crazy (expletive) happens when you’re in that type of a lifestyle,” White said per MMA Junkie. “You try to go out and you try to act normal and you try to be normal and it’s hard to do sometimes.”
Still, White wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t absolving McGregor of any wrongdoing.
“I’m not defending Conor in any way, shape or form,” White said per MMA Junkie. “I don’t know enough about his situation to talk about it at all. I do know I have gone out with him publicly with him before and it is bat (expletive) nuts.”
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