UFC President Dana White Joins FIRST THINGS FIRST To Discuss Incident Involving Conor McGregor Following UFC 223 Media Event

“It’s not that I don’t think [McGregor] understood what happened, but he justified it. It was justified to him.” — @DanaWhite pic.twitter.com/Yu2jv0HvkU

— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) April 6, 2018

 White on his conversation with Conor McGregor last night:

“Conor and I talked through text yesterday – probably the worst conversation we’ve ever had, but we talked yesterday before he turned himself in…It’s not that I don’t think he understood what happened, it’s just that he justified it. It was justified to him. [McGregor said] ‘Listen, I’m sorry about Mike [Chiesa] and I’m sorry about Rose [Namajunas] and whoever else, but this had to be done.’”

White on other routes McGregor could have taken:

“If you have a problem with somebody in this business we can handle it. You can literally fight them, and do whatever within the rules of fighting, you can do that. That’s absolutely what should’ve been done. You’re talking about one of the biggest superstars globally in all of sports. It doesn’t get any worse than this.”

White on if McGregor has a future with the UFC:

“People keep asking me, ‘Are you going to fire him? Are you going to fire him?’ and this is way bigger than are you going to fire a guy. This is criminal. Other fighters, some of our staff – one of our security guys broke a knuckle and was punched repeatedly by guys. We have the whole footage.”

“When Conor found out, he loaded up the plane full of guys from Ireland, flew over here & coordinated this attack.”@DanaWhite explains what lead to the McGregor incident at Barclays pic.twitter.com/7OcYsI1C1B

— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) April 6, 2018

 White on last night’s incident:

“This is a fight business, and leading up to the week of the fight there’s tension and animosity. Guys are cutting weight, they’re angry. These type of things happen. Guys will say things, push, shove, grab each other. These things have happened. People have slapped each other. We can deal with all of that stuff. But when you bring in twenty hoodlums that flew in from Ireland to basically do this at our event, there’s nothing like this that has ever happened.”

White on his biggest problem with McGregor’s actions:

“Obviously there are multiple problems with doing something like this, but the biggest problem in my opinion, both of these busses are full of a ton of fighters and their cornermen. And they’re just throwing things up into the windows, not caring who they hit. They hit Mike Chiesa – he has nothing to do with this. Rose Namajunas was right there – she has nothing to do with this. And many of the other fighters and cornermen have nothing to do with this situation, and they didn’t care. They attacked them all.”