Conor McGregor will face Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July eleventh in Las Vegas. It will likely be his first look within the Octagon in almost 5 years, however the second has arrived the place his title is extra within the headlines than what occurs contained in the cage. A civil jury discovered him responsible of rape. Two appellate courts upheld this discovering. An look on a TV chat present reignited the talk. And several other extra ladies have filed formal costs in opposition to him throughout two nations and separate incidents.
Nikita’s trial, verdict, prosecution and subsequent occasions
In November 2024, a civil jury on the Excessive Court docket in Dublin discovered an Irish UFC fighter chargeable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand on the Beacon Lodge on December 9, 2018. Hand and a good friend have been attending a piece Christmas get together that night time when McGregor picked them up and took them to a penthouse suite. She testified that McGregor choked her thrice in the course of the assault and put her in a maintain saying, “I understand how[my opponent]felt within the Octagon.” She stated she feared she would not survive.
The medical proof offered in the course of the two-week trial was detailed and graphic. Dr Danielle Cain, a marketing consultant gynecologist and forensic scientist, instructed the court docket that when she examined Ms Hand, she was “shaking and crying” and had bruises on her face, neck, arms, fingers, thighs, legs and decrease again, a 9cm scratch on her left breast and a tampon that had been pressured into her physique in the course of the assault had been surgically eliminated. Paramedics instructed the court docket they’d hardly ever seen a affected person “so bruised”. The jury awarded Hand €248,603 in damages. After the decision, Hand stated she felt “justice has been served” and inspired different survivors to not stay silent.
McGregor, who stated “no remark” about 100 instances throughout preliminary police interviews, denied any wrongdoing all through the trial and insisted the assembly was consensual. He posted on X after the decision confirming his intention to enchantment.
In July 2025, three judges of the Irish Court docket of Enchantment rejected all 5 of his grounds of enchantment, with Justice Brian O’Moore dismissing the case “in its entirety”. McGregor was additionally ordered to pay roughly £1.1 million in authorized prices. In December 2025, the Irish Supreme Court docket discovered that though the trial decide had made procedural errors, McGregor had acquired an general truthful trial and dismissed an additional enchantment.
jimmy fallon controversy
McGregor appeared on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 16, 2026, as a part of promotion for UFC 329. Fallon opened the present by calling McGregor “my man” and reminiscing about their time collectively the night time earlier than. The interview targeted solely on McGregor’s return to fight and made no point out of the civil rape conviction or his enchantment. McGregor instructed Fallon, “You have to keep calm. You have to be calm. You have to belief your coaching and your self-discipline. There isn’t any place to cover within the Octagon.”
The response on-line was fast. The section’s YouTube feedback part was crammed with viewers criticizing the reserving as “disgusting,” “completely vile,” and “pathetic.” On X, a number of customers criticized the interview for being tone-deaf, mentioning the truth that Fallon himself is the daddy of two daughters. Irish media urged viewers to contact NBC immediately.
Actress Christina Ricci posted on Instagram on June twenty second: “Disgrace on Jimmy for utilizing this human trash as a platform. He must cease performing like rape is OK.” Her put up shortly went viral, and the dialog shifted from sports activities protection to leisure information.
Fallon made no public assertion in response. Observers additionally famous that he didn’t put up any promotional clips from McGregor’s section on his social media channels, which is uncommon given how publicized superstar appearances sometimes are. “It is like… this should not have occurred,” one commenter wrote on Instagram. NBC had no remark.
accusation of sexual assault
The Hand incident was probably the most high-profile sexual assault allegation McGregor confronted, nevertheless it was not the one one. In 2018, the identical 12 months because the Hand incident, a second Irish girl lodged a grievance with gardaí alleging that McGregor sexually assaulted her in a automobile exterior a bar in Dublin. No costs have been filed.
In July 2022, an Irish girl named Samantha Murphy claimed that McGregor attacked her on a yacht throughout a birthday celebration off the coast of Ibiza, Spain. She instructed police McGregor verbally insulted her look, kicked her within the abdomen and punched her within the jaw with out warning.
Murphy stated the person jumped on high of her and threatened to drown her, saying, “I will drown you, who do you suppose you’re?” She stated she had no selection however to leap from the yacht into the ocean, however was pulled up by a Pink Cross rescue vessel. McGregor’s crew denied all the things. Mr Murphy has lodged each civil and felony complaints with gardaí.
Whereas these proceedings have been underway, a brick was thrown by her window and on January 19, 2023, an arsonist set her automobile on hearth exterior her house in Drimnagh, Dublin. Gardaí confirmed the investigation and stated no arrests had been made. In February 2023, Ms. Murphy withdrew the lawsuit with out clarification, and neither aspect confirmed or denied the settlement.
In June 2023, a 49-year-old girl claimed McGregor sexually assaulted her within the males’s lavatory at Miami’s Caseya Middle throughout Sport 4 of the NBA Finals. Her lawyer’s written request stated enviornment safety helped separate her from the group earlier than the alleged assault occurred. She claimed McGregor forcibly kissed her, tried oral intercourse and tried sodomy earlier than elbowing her and fleeing, leaving her together with her purse.
A Miami police investigation started inside 48 hours. Florida prosecutors declined to file felony costs in October 2023, citing inadequate proof. She filed a civil lawsuit in January 2025 naming the Miami Warmth and Caseya Middle for alleged safety deficiencies. In December 2025, she voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice.
assault and arrest
McGregor’s authorized historical past exterior of the sexual assault case is intensive. In April 2018, he led a bunch right into a loading dock on the Barclays Middle in Brooklyn, New York, and threw a steel wheelbarrow by the window of a bus carrying rival fighters forward of UFC 223, injuring two individuals with damaged glass. He was charged with three counts of assault and one rely of felony mischief and was initially sentenced to as much as seven years in jail, however in a cope with prosecutors, he pleaded responsible to disorderly conduct.
In March 2019, he was arrested in Miami Seaside for allegedly stomping on a fan’s cellphone and taking away her shattered physique exterior the Fontainebleau Lodge. Surveillance digicam footage captured the entire incident. He was charged with felonies of theft with a lethal weapon and misdemeanor mischief, and his bail was set at $125,000. He settled a civil go well with with the sufferer out of court docket, and prosecutors subsequently dropped all felony costs.
Additionally in 2019, McGregor pleaded responsible in Dublin District Court docket to assaulting a person on the Marble Arch pub after he refused a shot of McGregor’s Correct No. 12 whisky. He was fined 1,000 euros. After struggling a submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018, McGregor slammed one in all Khabib’s cornermen in opposition to the cage throughout a post-fight brawl. The Nevada State Athletic Fee fined him $50,000 and suspended him for six months.
UFC 329
Three days from now, on July 11, 2026, McGregor will step contained in the Octagon at T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas for the primary time since breaking his tibia and fibula in opposition to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 almost 5 years in the past in July 2021. His opponent will likely be Max Holloway in a five-round welterweight essential occasion throughout Worldwide Struggle Week. The 2 beforehand fought as soon as at featherweight in August 2013, with McGregor profitable by determination regardless of affected by a torn ACL. McGregor enters the battle as a heavy-stakes underdog at 22-6 and is 1-3 in his final 4 fights.
The UFC promotion plans to border this as a comeback story. For many of the viewers watching, it is a bit of more durable to take out of context than it was the final time he headlined a card. Nikita Hand’s authorized battle lasted seven years and handed by two courts of enchantment, all of which ended in opposition to McGregor.
