Dana White responds to criticism over Conor McGregor fighting amid sexual assault allegations

UFC president Dana White has responded to criticism that suggests Conor McGregor should not be fighting in the midst of ongoing sexual assault allegations.

The New York Times broke the story on two separate allegations of sexual assault earlier this year, and while some fans chose to turn a blind eye to it or immediately jump to defending McGregor, plenty of others wanted to see justice take its course in one way or the other before McGregor made his return.

During a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, White had the following to say on the matter.

“I didn’t even know (about the criticism),” White said (via MMA Junkie). “He hasn’t been charged with anything. You can’t accuse somebody and stop them from making a living when they haven’t even been charged of anything.

“Conor McGregor has made a lot of bad decisions in the past several years. He has paid for it. He walked into court and plead guilty to punching that guy in the face in Ireland. He paid for the slapping of the phone out of the thing. He attacked the bus and paid for that.”

White seemed to indicate that he wasn’t all that “in the loop” on the matter.

“He’s obviously done some things,” White said. “He’s been charged and paid and done everything he’s supposed to do. These other things, first of all I don’t even know. Has it said that he’s the guy that’s being accused?”

“Listen, if he was being charged with something right now. It would be a different story. The New York Times have wrote those stories, but there are no other stories out there about Conor McGregor.”

While the excitement is continuing to build for McGregor’s impending UFC 246 showdown with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, this is a story that isn’t just going to go away overnight.

What do you think of this rebuttal from Dana White? 

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/13/2019.