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20 Memorable Conor McGregor Moments That Made Fans Cringe

Darren Ryding - July 9, 2023

Lists

20 Memorable Conor McGregor Moments That Made Fans Cringe

Darren Ryding - July 9, 2023

Conor McGregor is the most popular MMA fighter in the world. But he’s also incredibly controversial. ‘The Notorious’ is the perfect nickname for this volatile Irishman. He’s an excellent athlete and incredibly charismatic. That’s what caused his dramatic rise in the first place.

However, he’s also prone to moments of insanity. The Irishman has had a ridiculous number of brushes with the law. Furthermore, he does and says things that any normal person would realize aren’t smart. There’s no doubt that his popularity has waned since he got ultra-rich following his mega-money boxing match with Floyd Mayweather in 2017.

So today, we’re going to take a look at the top 20 times McGregor made fans cringe. Somebody needs to tell him to just walk away and stop partying once in a while.

20. The Driving Ban

Kicking off the list is one of McGregor’s many legal offenses over the past couple of years. He has a fleet of supercars including Rolls-Royces and Lamborghinis. However, these incredible vehicles have got him into trouble several times in his native Ireland. Several speeding offenses saw him rack up court appearances in 2016 and 2017.

There’s even footage of him speeding away from the courthouse. It’s not the most cringeworthy moment on this list, but it was definitely a symptom of his fall into thinking he was untouchable. Finally, a judge banned him from driving for six months. That’s what you get for flaunting your wealth.

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19. The Night Club Waitress

This one happened in 2019. McGregor was partying with a number of his regular entourage including Bellator fighter and his regular bodyguard, Charlie Ward (pic below). In short, the details are hazy but it definitely doesn’t make for good reading. The group was partying at Delilah in LA when the event allegedly occurred.

First of all, McGregor allegedly carried a bottle service girl out of the club over his shoulder to their SUV. Witnesses reported that a manager had to bang on the window to let the terrified girl out. However, Ward insists that he was making out with her and it was just a misunderstanding. The club banned them for life.

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18. Losing to Khabib Nurmagamedov

After all the toxic build-up and venom, Khabib won their anticipated fight at 2018’s UFC 229. This was by far the worst of his losses because there could be no excuses. The champion put him under relentless pressure from beginning to end. Then he tapped out in the fourth round. Fans sneered ‘McTapout’ for his shoddy ground game.

But the worst part of the fight was in the second round. This was when Nurmagamedov put the beating of McGregor’s life on him. Khabib told McGregor repeatedly, “let’s talk now.” The Notorious was mortified and exposed in front of the entire world. In short, this loss could prove to be career-defining.

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17. Rita Ora Date Night

If there’s one thing that McGregor loves, it’s a party. One of his most infamous nights was in London where he hung out with pop star and model Rita Ora. She tweeted pictures with him captioned ‘date night.’ In sum, this caused a massive online stir because his girlfriend, Dee Devlin, was at home with their young son at the time.

Several more pictures from the night emerged with the two of them cozying up to each other. It definitely wasn’t a good look for the self-professed family man. The final word goes to McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov. He responded: “Sorry Rita, Burgers are nice but not when a man has steak at home.”

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16. Calling Siver a Nazi

One of the earliest incidents of McGregor going too far was when he fought Dennis Siver in 2015. ‘The Notorious’ effectively took this fight after beating Dustin Poirier just to keep his momentum rolling. He had no respect for Siver and made a big deal out of his previous drug test failure.

That is absolutely fair game. However, sometimes he doesn’t know when to stop. McGregor took it to the next level by calling the Russian-born German a Nazi on Twitter. Cue sharp intake of breath from the watching world. Siver refused to touch gloves with his fellow featherweight when they finally fought.

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15. McGregor and Lobov

One of the Irishman’s closest confidantes is the Russian fighter Artem Lobov. The definition of a journeyman, Lobov fought on the regional scene before arriving on the Ultimate Fighter. However, he blew his chance when he lost his qualifying bout. Needless to say, McGregor had his friend’s back.

For the first time, Dana White introduced a new rule where the coaches could choose a wild card from an eliminated fighter. Of course, McGregor chose ‘The Russian Hammer.’ Fight fans around the world rolled their eyes at the blatant cronyism. Lobov was only able to earn the respect of fans when he moved to bare-knuckle boxing.

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14. The Love Child Incident

Dee Devlin has become famous in her own right as Conor McGregor’s girlfriend. The long-suffering mother of his two children has had to deal with numerous situations in the past. McGregor attended a party in Liverpool that saw members of his security confiscate phones and hand out non-disclosure agreements to everybody involved.

That didn’t stop Terri Wilson from accusing McGregor of fathering her child. Where there’s smoke there’s definitely fire, and fans were quick to jump on board the story. But he did eventually take a DNA test to clear his name. In sum, he could have avoided this situation by not being crazy.

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13. Take Off the Sunglasses

Some would argue that McGregor’s descent into madness started against Eddie Alvarez. While he put on a masterful performance against ‘The Underground King,’ it was the beginning of his more toxic speech. There were less funny soundbites and more rants about how much money he was earning.

One exchange saw Alvarez tell McGregor to take off his ‘stupid sunglasses.’ McGregor repeatedly responded ‘make me.’ But he had to take them off to look the Philly native in the eye when he said it. He didn’t realize what he had done but it definitely took away from his attempt to be intimidating.

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12. UFC 229 Brawl

First of all, we’ve got to say that McGregor didn’t start this. That lies entirely at Khabib’s feet. But it was still one of the most embarrassing moments in UFC history. Televised to millions around the world, it was a real facepalm moment for the promotion. But that wasn’t the most cringe-worthy part.

After the brawl, McGregor released a lengthy tweet basically saying he had destroyed two of Khabib’s teammates who came after him. In short, he was trying to deflect attention from his bad beating by Khabib. Needless to say, fans saw right through it. Sometimes it’s just best to say nothing.

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11. ‘Retirement’

McGregor has already ‘retired’ twice in his career. Both times he was trying to put pressure on the UFC. The first stunned the world in the run-up to UFC 200. He refused to do media duties and instead he holed up in Iceland with his team. The UFC pulled him from the card so he ‘retired.’ It only lasted for a few days as they negotiated. However, the second just infuriated fans.

It came when his Brooklyn bus attack was still in the news. Many supporters thought that he was just looking for attention and would definitely be back. The fact that he is fighting again shows that you just can’t trust his word. No wonder he gets along so well with Dana White.

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10. The Brooklyn Bus Attack

This could be higher but some fans think this was epic. In short, McGregor wanted revenge on Khabib for intimidating Artem Lobov. So his natural response was to fly a group of 20 goons over to Brooklyn from Ireland by private jet. They then proceeded to rampage through the Barclays Center where UFC 223 was going down.

McGregor infamously threw a dolly at the window of a bus carrying several fighters including Khabib. Two fighters got glass in their eyes, preventing them from fighting in the event. Meanwhile, NYPD picked McGregor up and he spent the night in a precinct. This was absolute chaos but still used to promote McGregor’s pending bout with Nurmagomedov.

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9. Strip Club Antics

Welcome to the final installment of our ‘poor Dee Devlin’ series. This one allegedly comes from a strip club in London only a couple of days after the Rita Ora incident. So yes, Devlin was still at home with their newly-born son Conor Jr. Meanwhile, McGregor was partying away like it was his last week on earth.

The pictures from this night out pretty much tell you everything you need to know. First of all, surely a man of McGregor’s riches can afford to go to a place where the strippers have better taste in underwear? That black and yellow combination is just nasty. But as you can, McGregor doesn’t seem to care because he was all over it.

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8. Dance for Me Boy

Racism and McGregor are two words that have come together more than once. During his media tour with Floyd Mayweather, he infamously told him to ‘dance for me, boy.’ Of course, this evoked images of the Jim Crow era and brought the ire of African-American fans.

Things escalated when he said that he’s not racist because ‘black from the waist down.’ We’re not exactly sure that’s how it works. But one thing is for sure, the former double champion knows how to dig a hole for himself. He should have just stopped talking because that’s a no-win situation.

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7. The Water Bottle Fight

This was as petty as it gets. McGregor has a history of turning up late to press conferences. It’s one of his ways of saying that he runs the show. But Nate Diaz has no time for this sort of thing so he stormed out with Stockton’s finest. On the way, the pair exchanged expletives and crude gestures.

Then things escalated. A member of the Diaz squad threw a bottle in McGregor’s direction. The then-featherweight champion responded by throwing back five or six at Diaz’s group. UFC President Dana White despairingly called his name for him to stop. The NAC ultimately hit him with a $50,000 fine.

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6. The UFC 229 Press Conference

McGregor is as famous for his trash talk as he is for his fighting. He has a remarkable way with words and is brilliant at mental warfare. The one thing is that he never loses control. However, the UFC 229 presser revealed his vulnerability. He was a total loose cannon.

Since the conference, he has admitted that he was actually drunk. McGregor targeted everything from Khabib’s father, to his religion to Russian geopolitics in a furious, venomous tirade. But it sounded unhinged in a way that fans had never seen before. It was seriously uncomfortable to watch.

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5. The Broken Phone

Why can’t McGregor just walk away? This is another incident of him just making unnecessary trouble for himself. This time “The Notorious” was in Florida celebrating his mother’s 60th birthday. So, of course, he wound up spending the night in the cell of a Miami precinct. It’s so annoying when that happens right?

He got into it with a fan who asked for a picture with him. However, the man had been antagonizing McGregor and his crew all night so the Irishman wasn’t reciprocal. Instead, he took the phone from the so-called fan and smashed it on the ground. McGregor ended up settling out of court.

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4. Bellator 187

Charlie Ward seems to bring out the worst in McGregor. The Notorious was in attendance at Bellator 187 in Dublin, Ireland when this moment of madness happened. After Ward knocked out John Redmond, McGregor climbed into the cage to share his teammate’s moment of glory.

Referee Marc Goddard attempted to remove McGregor from the cage because he had no right to be there. But the Irishman saw red and violently shoved him. He also smacked a Bellator staff member on his way out of the building. The worst part was the injured Redmond took another knock during the fracas.

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3. Sexual Assault Allegations

The only reason this isn’t at the top of the list is that no charges have been pressed at the time of writing. However, McGregor can’t shake the sexual assault allegations and it’s definitely tarnished his reputation. The New York Times released the story in 2019. The worst part was that the online UFC fanbase seemed unsurprised.

McGregor appeared to have gone full Mike Tyson according to the reports. These are just allegations right now, but he shouldn’t be in this situation. Did McGregor go from pauper to prince too quickly? Having an occasional good night out is perfectly human but all of his crazy parties have taken their toll.

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2. ‘Your Wife is a Towel’

One of the world’s current truths is that the Internet is forever. If you post something it’s almost impossible to get rid of it. Especially if you’re a global superstar with the world’s media watching everything you post for a story. During the height of McGregor’s toxic rivalry with Khabib, things got very personal.

Usually when fighters trash talk, it’s an unofficial rule that you don’t talk about family members. McGregor went for the jugular and called the devout Muslim’s wife a ‘towel.’ He swiftly deleted the tweet but not before MMA publications had screengrabbed it. Fans lost even more respect for him after this.

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1. Old Man Punch

By the far, the worst confirmed incident in the past few years was when McGregor punched a 50-year-old man in Dublin’s Marble Arch pub. To sum up, he tried to buy a round of his whiskey for everybody in the bar but the older man rejected it twice. McGregor reacted violently.

He lashed out with a sucker punch that bounced off of the man’s skull. Fans greeted his action with derision and contempt. This was a new low for McGregor and he swiftly broke a media silence to apologize because he realized he had gone too far. After facing assault charges, the Irish court fined him for his pathetic action.

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20 Memorable Conor McGregor Moments That Made Fans Cringe

20 Memorable Conor McGregor Moments That Made Fans Cringe

20. The Driving Ban

19. The Night Club Waitress

18. Losing to Khabib Nurmagamedov

17. Rita Ora Date Night

16. Calling Siver a Nazi

15. McGregor and Lobov

14. The Love Child Incident

13. Take Off the Sunglasses

12. UFC 229 Brawl

11. ‘Retirement’

10. The Brooklyn Bus Attack

9. Strip Club Antics

8. Dance for Me Boy

7. The Water Bottle Fight

6. The UFC 229 Press Conference

5. The Broken Phone

4. Bellator 187

3. Sexual Assault Allegations

2. ‘Your Wife is a Towel’

1. Old Man Punch

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