Referee Marc Goddard commented Tuesday on the incident that occurred involving Conor McGregor at the conclusion of the Bellator 187 fight between Charlie Ward and John Redmond on Friday.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Goddard discussed the circumstances surrounding McGregor entering the cage to celebrate with Ward before the bout was technically over.
Bellator MMA tweeted video of the incident, which showed McGregor pushing Goddard in the back at one point:
Goddard said he had stepped between Ward and a grounded Redmond when he thought the first round came to an end, however, there was still one second remaining, which led Ward, his team and McGregor to believe Ward had won.
Amid the chaos, Goddard was trying to determine whether Redmond could continue, and he said in the explanation that is why he addressed Ward and McGregor before McGregor pushed him.
With regard to McGregor, Goddard said he doesn’t want any additional actions to be taken against him for his involvement in the situation:
“I do not wish for any further action to be taken against any party, in particular Conor McGregor, but ultimately that is entirely out of my hands. I hope that the situation can be reviewed, learned from on how we could prevent a repeat instance and then case closed, we move on for the good of the sport.”
Goddard also commented on his relationship with McGregor and suggested the UFC Lightweight champion’s fame changed the way “Notorious” treated him:
“I have known, witnessed and refereed Conor on many previous occasions over the years and watched, even in support of his meteoric rise, speaking publically to commend him and offer an insight when others had turned against him. I have known Conor before he was the mega star that he is now, long before he amassed his fame and fortune—the difference being I respected him the same and treated him no different back then.”
No punishment has been made public for McGregor thus far, but Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation Director Mike Mazzulli told MMAFighting.com (h/t Brian Campbell of CBSSports.com) Tuesday that UFC has pulled McGregor from the UFC 219 card on Dec. 30:
“After the event, I had some executives from UFC contact me within two hours after what occurred. They basically said to me that it was completely unacceptable in their eyes and that they will be doing something. They did inform me that he was set to be on the Dec. 30 card and he will not be on it. So I do commend UFC to some extent for doing that.”
McGregor is the biggest draw in UFC, and he was set to fight Tony Ferguson at UFC 219 in his return to the Octagon for the first time since UFC 205 in November 2016.
He took a hiatus from MMA to pursue a boxing fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in August, which he lost by 10th-round technical knockout.
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