Dana White Should Fire Conor McGregor Immediately If Barclays Incident Wasn't A Stunt

Dana White should fire Conor McGregor from the UFC immediately if Thursday’s incident at the Barclays Center wasn’t part of a promotional set-up. While I’ve gone on record saying the whole thing seemed like it was planned to help promote a future bout between McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov, White is steadfast in claiming he’s furious with “The Notorious.”

In case you missed it, McGregor showed up at Barclays Center towards the end of media day for UFC 223. He reportedly came to confront Nurmagomedov, who had previously had a run-in with McGregor’s friend and training partner Artem Lobov. McGregor entered the building and went after the tour bus holding Nurmagomedov and his team of fighters. A window on the bus was smashed by McGregor and several fighters sustained injuries.

Lobov was with McGregor and has been removed from UFC 223’s card due to his participation. Lightweight Michael Chiesa — who was on the bus — suffered facial lacerations and has pulled out of a scheduled fight with Anthony Pettis. Flyweight Ray Borg was also on the bus and his fight with Brandon Moreno has also been canceled due to injuries sustained in the incident.

McGregor later turned himself in to the NYPD, though no charges have yet been filed.

I believe the entire thing was orchestrated, but McGregor took things too far and people wound up getting hurt as a result. The plan was likely for McGregor to show up and attempt to confront Nurmagomedov, but he was never supposed to break that window or injure anyone. It was a stunt that got out of control.

If I’m wrong and none of this was planned by the UFC, then White should immediately fire McGregor. If he’s really as mad as he claims and truly believes this is the worst thing that’s happened in the organization’s history, then he should get rid of Conor.

If White and the UFC don’t dump the Irishman, we’ll know it was at least partially staged. There’s absolutely no other explanation for keeping him around.

Yeah, McGregor makes the company a lot of money, but he’s been inactive since November 12, 2016 and has now put other UFC employees in danger. The company is now in a situation where it could face lawsuits for not creating a safe work environment.

If this wasn’t a set-up, McGregor should be gone. There’s absolutely no question of that. Whether or not White follows through will tell you a lot about this incident.