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Conor McGregor’s ongoing beef with MMA referee Marc Goddard came to a boiling point at Bellator 187 in Dublin last weekend.

McGregor has faced quite the backlash following his outburst, and now Goddard himself has responded in detail to the madness after having a few days to think it over, issuing a lengthy statement on his Facebook page earlier today (via MMA Fighting):

“I was talking only to Charlie Ward at this point and you will see me put my arms between him and Conor McGregor, trying to separate and restore order to notify him to go back to his corner and continue the rest period, I was trying to communicate with Charlie Ward and then trying to tell Conor to leave, it wasn’t done yet.

“This is when Conor McGregor began firstly his verbal assault in my direction. My only thought at this point was to notify Charlie Ward, and his corner team, of my decision at the time and restore order to the fighting area. Also the condition of [John] Redmond and then subsequently bringing in the [doctor] in the rest period to make a determination. Of course the ensuing mêlée and confusion had completely prevented that from happening, that is the result of the actions of one man.”

The bad blood between McGregor and Goddard began back when the UFC lightweight champion was admonished by the referee for interfering cageside for his good friend and teammate Artem Lobov’s latest UFC loss to Artem Fili at October 28’s UFC Gdansk.

A bit of bad blood ensued, so when the famed MMA ref bounced him from the Bellator cage, he didn’t take too kindly to it.

With ABC President Mike Mazzulli saying McGregor will be sanctioned for the indiscretion and removed from his supposed main event at UFC 219, Goddard feels as if the incident is over, and nothing more should come of it.

“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.”

Do you feel as if the issue has been blown out of proportion, or should McGregor truly be punished?

The post Marc Goddard Explains Conor McGregor Chaos At Bellator 187 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Conor McGregor caused quite the stir after jumping into the cage at Bellator 187 in Dublin last Friday and getting into an altercation with referee Marc Goddard.

He issued a formal apology online today but stuck to the stance that he was simply angered that Goddard would even have considered letting Ward’s dazed opponent John Redmond continue.

While McGregor may have seen it as simply coming in to celebrate an SBG teammate’s big win, the powers that be saw differently. So much so that the sanctioning bodies that be are pushing for the UFC lightweight champion to be punished, essentially targeting his possible inclusion on the upcoming UFC 219 card.

ABC President Mike Mazzulli, who was cageside during McGregor’s outburst, claimed the brash Irishman has already been sanctioned by the UFC during an appearance on The MMA Hour:

“They already sanctioned him,” Mazzulli said. “So they did hit him. He’s not gonna be making any more money this year and I commend UFC for that. I really do.”

“There’s a zero tolerance for that,” Mazzulli said. “That’s why I said when you are a professional at that level, you have to handle yourself as a professional. There’s a lot of people that are looking up to you and respecting you as an individual, as a fighter. Don’t get me wrong, Conor McGregor is a great, great fighter. I’ve watched every single fight of his and that’s what I do, this is my job.

“But when it comes to what he did to Mr. Goddard and [Bellator employee] Michael Johnson, what would possess somebody to do that? Like I said, if it was at Mohegan, I guarantee you that the Mohegan Tribe Police Department would be removing Mr. Conor. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Mazzulli continued on to offer his stance that McGregor was not bigger than the sport as a whole despite his behavior suggesting otherwise. In closing, Mazzulli said that McGregor was simply acting incredibly unprofessional, which was the stark opposite of how a champion on his level should behave at an event:

“Mr. McGregor is not bigger than MMA,” Mazzulli said. “We all know that. Mr. McGregor may not be around in five years, but MMA will still be. I think that is very important to understand, that fighter safety is the most important thing in the world. Because without fighter safety, this sport would not proceed to the next level like it always has.”

“First of all, I’m never comfortable when somebody takes it upon himself to act like a 5-year-old and jump in the cage,” Mazzulli said. “The bottom line is he was unprofessional, he was disrespectful and it was not acceptable in my eyes. In any situation. I don’t care if it’s anybody else jumping in the cage. We don’t do that as a professional.”

MMAFighting.com reached out to McGregor’s camp upon getting word of Mazzulli’s comment, to which his agent Audie Attar said Mazzulli’s claims were “not true.”

McGregor has not been officially added to UFC 219, but there have been several rumors that a fight between the lightweight champion and interim lightweight champ Tony Ferguson could headline the December 30th event in Las Vegas.

Do you believe McGregor should be punished for his actions at Bellator 187, and if so, should it go as far to remove him from potentially the biggest UFC pay-per-view event of the year?

The post Conor McGregor Camp Denies Commission Claim He’s Off UFC 219 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.