The NBA legend is being accused of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
UFC 229 remains infamous for what happened in the crowd after the main event between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor was officially waved off. After beating his nemesis with a neck crank ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov soared out of the cage and into the crowd targeting members of McGregor’s team.
As chaos erupted outside the cage a melee between McGregor and members of Nurmagomedov’s team broke out inside the cage. After these flare ups died down there were other clashes across Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena involving fans of both fighters.
Another incident, which was far less dramatic, occurred in the crowd that night and it involved a future NBA Hall of Famer.
According to TMZ Sports Boston Celtics’ legend Paul Pierce was involved in an altercation with a security guard during the event. That security guard — Christopher Mostello — is now reportedly suing Pierce for what went down.
According to his lawsuit, Mostello claims that he was called over by a supervisor to respond to an incident involving Pierce. Mostello alleges that Pierce had gotten physical and aggressive with a female member of the security team. That incident was reportedly spurred by the security member asking to see Pierce’s ticket before allowing him back to his seat.
Mostello claims he was told that Pierce grabbed that security guard by the arms and had pushed her to the side. That’s when Mostello said he stepped in and tried to stop Pierce. Mostello claims Pierce continued to act aggressively and then screamed “F—k you” at him before calling him a racist.
Video footage of this incident was published by TMZ Sports and can be seen below:
In Mostello’s lawsuit he claims that he is not a racist and that he was just doing his job. He also claims that his reputation has been damaged as a result of the incident, leading him to be subjected to public embarrassment, harassment, and ridicule. Because of this he is alleging that Pierce is guilty of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Mostello is demanding around $15,000 from Pierce in damages and attorney fees.