Former two-weight UFC world champion Conor McGregor has promised to “be better”, apologising for his involvement in a pub incident.
Earlier in August, a video surfaced showing “Notorious” appearing to punch a man in an Irish pub in April.
McGregor said he was in the wrong to Ariel Helwani in an interview special for ESPN.
Contrite Conor McGregor admits he was in the wrong for April altercation@arielhelwani's @SportsCenter Special with @TheNotoriousMMA airs tonight at 8 PM ET on ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/bylgwuTPat
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 22, 2019
“I was in the wrong. That man deserved to enjoy his time in the pub without having it end the way it did,” McGregor told Helwani.
“It was five months ago and I tried to make amends and I made amends back then. But that doesn’t matter, I was in the wrong and I must take accountability, take responsibility.
“I owe that to the people that have supported me. I owe it to my mother, my father, my family. I owe it to the people that trained me in martial arts. That’s not who I am.
“That is not the reason I got into martial arts or studying combat sports. The reason I got into it was to defend against that type of scenario.
“I have been making steps and continuing to make steps to do better and be better, to see it (the footage) is like a dagger into my heart as a young martial artist.”
McGregor announced his retirement from MMA in April, but indicated he wants to be back fighting in the Octagon before the end of the year.
The Dubliner, who once held both UFC featherweight and lightweight gold, was defeated by UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in his last fight – the first he had in the cage in over two years.
