Conor McGregor denied boxing license in Nevada

This week has been a busy one for UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. After UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier withdrew from his scheduled UFC 206 headlining scrap with Anthony Johnson, the UFC opted to promote the co-main event fight between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis to the main event, and make the fight for the interim featherweight championship. This meant that interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo had to be promoted to the undisputed featherweight champion, which resulted in Conor McGregor relinquishing his featherweight championship.

Several days following that announcement, it was revealed that McGregor had been granted a boxing license in California, throwing fuel on the fire of rumors of a potential boxing fight with Floyd Mayweather.

Interestingly enough however, McGregor also applied for a boxing license in Nevada, however the NSAC wouldn’t grant him a license to box there due to the fact that he has yet to pay his fine from his infamous water bottle fight with Team Diaz ahead of UFC 202 back in August.

By now the majority of the MMA community know of the incident. Leading up to the fight, McGregor and Diaz were scheduled to attend a UFC 202 pre-fight press conference. McGregor showed up late to the event, which promoted Nate Diaz to get up and walk off stage, storming out of the press conference with his entire team. When McGregor stated that none of the men would do anything, they began to yell insults at him and throw water bottles. McGregor of course fired back by throwing objects of his own, resulting in both men being fined by the NSAC.

The fine resulted in McGregor stating that he never wanted to fight in Las Vegas again, which UFC President Dana White appeared to support.

In addition to not paying his NSAC fines, McGregor needs to prove that he is a capable boxer before being granted a license to fight in Nevada. NSAC director Bob Bennett released a statement on McGregor being denied a boxing license through BoxingScene saying:

“Mr. McGregor is an incredibly gifted fighter and athlete. He obviously knows what he’s doing as a fighter and I have the utmost respect for his abilities,” Bennett said. “But it is a different sport.”