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Conor McGregor Apologizes For Using Anti-Gay Slur at UFC Fight Night 118

October 31, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor has apologized for using an anti-gay slur at UFC Fight Night 118. McGregor used the word while talking with Artem Lobov after Lobov’s loss. The video was posted automatically to the UFC’s Twitter account after being captured by the UFC film crew and featured McGregor saying, “He was a f**got, and everyone knew he was a f**got.”

McGregor appeared on Irish TV show The Late Late Show and apologized, saying, “I have to put my hands up, there. I was watching a fighter, a sparring partner, a training partner, a friend, a brother, who has given his health – his body health, his brain health, everything – to help me prepare for fights; to give my brain health and my body health to entertain the public. So that’s the fighter I was going to watch and support. And I witnessed him lose a fight in a manner that – and a potential career ending fight – a manner where the opponent was stalling and running away. And I was upset. And I was whispering in his ear, and I was speaking on that, and I said what I said. And I meant no disrespect to nobody of any of the LBGT community. I didn’t mean no disrespect to that.”

He continued, “I wasn’t even… You’d swear I was talking about or screaming at two people of the same sex kissing. I campaigned when we were trying to get same-sex marriage legalized [in Ireland], I was campaigning for that. It’s another one where things just get blown out and they love to just… Any chance they get they love to throw me under the bus. It’s just one of those things. I’m just saying I’m sorry for what I said and that’s it, and try and move on from it.”

The UFC has not issued an official statement on the incident. Video of McGregor’s appearance is below: