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A jury found Conor McGregor guilty in a civil court case brought by Nikita Hand over a 2018 incident at a Dublin hotel. We explain what the charge was and which damages were awarded.

There’s been a lot of confusion surrounding the guilty verdict rendered against Conor McGregor in Dublin on Friday (Nov. 22nd, 2024), and a lot of it has to do with the specifics of how the Irish civil court works. Let’s break down some of the biggest questions surrounding the trial: what the jury found McGregor guilty of, and how they came to the figure of nearly €250,000 (roughly $260,000 U.S.) being award McGregor’s accuser Nikita Hand.

First off, to be clear: this was not a criminal case. While Gardai and the Director of Public Prosecutions did a full investigation into the December 2018 incident after it occurred, they determined there was insufficient evidence to secure a conviction in criminal court. That led Hand to seek recourse in civil court, where a two week trial ended with McGregor being found guilty. But of what exactly?

The Irish Times spoke with Newstalk court correspondent Frank Greaney, who broke down the verdict.

“When the jury began their deliberations on Thursday afternoon, they weren’t asked to consider any allegation of criminal wrongdoing against either Conor McGregor or the second named defendant, his friend James Lawrence,” Greaney explained. “They were essentially being asked if either man had assaulted her. And if so, and only if so, they were then asked to assess damages.”

“So it is essentially the civil tort of assault or battery that was what the jury was was asked to consider.”

“But clearly, through the evidence, and the judge said this to the jury: the essence of the allegation was of a sexual nature,” Greaney added. “It was an allegation of of rape. And Nikita Hand did give some harrowing, very distressing details of how Conor McGregor had pinned her down on a bed in the penthouse suite of the Beacon Hotel back in December of 2018 and raped her.”

Shortly after being declared guilty, McGregor took to X (formerly Twitter) in a poorly worded attempt to clarify that the verdict was “was for assault” and not rape. He also noted the “modest award given” to Hand did not include “aggravated or exemplary damages.”

“In relation to damages, the jurors were told that if they found that Mr. McGregor had assaulted Nikita Hand, they would then have to go on and assess and award damages,” Greaney explained. “There are different categories of damages that they were told about: there are general damages, there are special damages, there are aggravated damages, and there are punitive damages.”

According to Irish Legal Guide, general damages are those which follow naturally from the tort / civil wrong. Special damages are quantifiable out of pocket monetary expenses and loss of earnings arising before trial. Aggravated damages may be awarded as additional compensation where injury has been caused or exacerbated by the conduct of the defendant. Punitive damages are intended to mark the court’s disapproval of the defendant’s conduct in the circumstances.

“They actually only decided to award her damages in relation to two of those four categories: general and special,” Greaney said. “There was no compensation given for aggravated or punitive. We don’t know the reasoning behind that. We know the figure. We know that for things like medical bills, loss of earnings, you know, psychiatrist bills, and and things like that, she was awarded just under a quarter of a million euros.”

“They would also have had the option to award her damages to punish Mr. McGregor for what he did, to send out a message that this type of behavior isn’t acceptable in this society. Particularly when it comes to rape, the judge told them that they’re entitled to make that conclusion. But for whatever reason — again, we don’t know why — they didn’t award damages in those particular categories.”

McGregor will be made to pay €250,000 in damages, and will return to court next week where it will be decided if he must pay for the €1,000,000+ in court costs and legal fees. The Irish sports star has vowed to appeal.

“We heard at the beginning that she was looking for an awful lot more than that or at least she was suing for an awful lot more than that,” Greaney commented. “€750,000 was mentioned for rehousing, and also there was a claim for €1,000,000 in loss of earnings. A quarter of a million euro is a lot of money, but it’s clearly a long way away from from what she was was suing Conor McGregor for.”

The jury never got to hear Hand’s reasoning for rehousing: a June 2024 home invasion where masked assailants entered her home at night and stabbed her partner. Hand’s lawyers argued that they were not suggesting McGregor was directly responsible but did lay the blame at ‘supporters of Mr. McGregor.’ The judge ruled the incident ‘completely irrelevant’ to the case at hand and blocked it from being brought up during the trial.

Another Bellator champion is speaking out against the way PFL has managed the promotion since purchasing it.

Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull is sick of waiting around for PFL to schedule him and has taken to social media to speak out against the promotion for its treatment of Bellator fighters since purchasing the company in November 2023.

Pitbull (real name Freire) added his voice to complaints from fellow Bellator fighters Patchy Mix and Leandro Higo, who had their bantamweight title fight cancelled when PFL pulled the plug on a Bellator Champions Series Paris event.

“I haven’t fought since February,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “I wanted to fight 3x this year, but I was told I’d have to wait until December 31st and found out online my opponent would fight someone else. Then they had a replacement, I bring people over, spend more money with the camp and there’s no fight. They said things didn’t work out with Japan and that it wasn’t their fault. OK. So why don’t you stage a show somewhere else?”

“What kind of promotion can’t give fighters at least two fights a year?” Pitbull asked. “Some haven’t even fought this year! Bellator used to be BIG. Things worked and we always had answers. They never just cancelled a show and said they had no idea when we would be booked. Even regional promotions have dates set for April of next year already! This merger has been a disaster to the sport of MMA.”

“Meanwhile we have to see the top brass talking about offering tens of millions of dollars to social media personalities and semi-retired fighters, while cutting 90% of the roster and telling guys making 30+30 they’re too expensive. How can you become number 1 in the world if you don’t stage events and don’t want to pay fighters?”

“I am very worried about the future of Bellator and MMA in general,” Pitbull concluded. “I feel very sorry for all the fighters who didn’t even get to fight this year or were cut because they just don’t make shows or think they’re expensive, and all the fighters who were forced to take paycuts.”

This is wrong. We need answers, we need the fighters and fans to be respected. This is not a game or just some business, these are people’s lives we are talking about. A serious promotion would give fighters the chance to fight at least 3 times a year if they’re healthy.”

Bellator fighters have been treated as the red-haired stepchildren of the PFL since the promotion was bought out. The promotions remained technically separate, with PFL promising to fulfill their contractual obligations to Bellator’s broadcast partners. Less important to them, it seems, are their obligations to provide Bellator fighters with regular fights.

Patricio Pitbull is just one of a few Bellator champions to castigate the PFL for their fight scheduling. There’s bantamweight champion Patchy Mix. And Women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg was very vocal with her frustration in getting a single fight out of the company this year. For all the talk of being the No. 2 promotion in the sport based on top fighters signed, PFL needs to stop stalling out their careers.

The worst thing promoters can do to a fighter is fight them and not pay. The second worst is sign them and not fight them. We’re seeing a lot more of the second these days, and as Pitbull said, it does not bode well for the future health of the sport.

Here’s what you may have missed!

It’s not everyday an interesting women’s Flyweight prospect come along. The division’s Top 10 has been largely stagnant in recent years, made up of the same old faces and Strawweights opting to skip out on their diets. The two exceptions are Manon Fiorot and Erin Blanchfield, who are likely the next two-in-line for title fights and do represent a significant challenge to Valentina Shevchenko.

By and large, it’s an open field to climb the ranks quickly.

Enter Wang Cong, who had every element fans could hope for in an exciting new prospect. First and foremost, “The Joker” can fight! An accomplished Wushu Sanda practitioner — not unlike Strawweight queen Zhang Weili — and former professional kickboxer, Cong has a depth of skill to her game and level of experience that most in her division cannot match. She’s also physically powerful, as evidenced by her brutal debut knockout win, which lasted just a single minute.

Best of all, Cong came with a prepackaged narrative. She defeated Shevchenko years ago in kickboxing, and nobody has forgotten Alex Pereira’s rise up the ranks to (briefly) dethrone Israel Adesanya. Grasso diversion aside, “Bullet” has been atop the Flyweight pack for a long, long time, and some bad blood with a former foe would sell nicely.

As with “Poatan,” UFC understood the assignment and matched Cong with a striker that Cong was massively favored to defeat. Indeed, the fight played out that way for most of its runtime until Gabriella Fernandes clocked Cong with a big shot in the second, jumped her back, and finished via strangle.

The question immediately rises: was this a fraud check? Was this a classic case of Cong never being that good and the general fanbase being too quick to jump on a hype train? Is all hope lost?!?

I have to say, my verdict is a resounding “Not Guilty” to the fraud check allegations. Cong didn’t look bad here. She put together good, effective offense and showed off her powerful kickboxing. She didn’t give up any takedowns. When she was submitted, it was more excusable in that she had already been rocked.

The truth is likely that Gabrielle Fernandes is better than her previous 1-2 UFC record indicated. Those pair of defeats demonstrated an issue with getting held down on the floor, but that’s not Cong’s game. Fernandes is a former LFA champion — a serious accomplishment — with a jiu-jitsu black belt who is better known for her striking. She’s unusual in her ability to hang in the pocket with Cong, take those power shots, and answer with her own offense.

Not many Flyweights are going to be able to replicate that strategy.

In the long term, Cong can still climb the ranks. She still has standout physical gifts and interesting skills in a fairly empty division. The unfortunate part of this loss, however, is that her Pereira moment is gone. There’s no longer any chance of rocketing up the ranks into a “Bullet” rematch. That narrative has been squashed, and Cong will have to climb the ladder rung-by-rung like someone who hasn’t previously beaten Shevchenko.

On the bright side, it should still be quite fun to watch.

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