UFC star Conor McGregor and Machine Gun singer Kelly got into an altercation Sunday night that almost became physical.
McGregor and Kelly were both on the red carpet at the MTV Video Music Awards at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center when things warmed up. McGregor could be seen in videos launching himself against Kelly, who was detained by security and his girlfriend, actress Megan Fox. According to later, McGregor was escorted, but more videos captured him throwing a cocktail in the direction of Kelly.
It is not clear exactly what started the conflict and, at this time, neither side is saying so. TMZ reported that McGregor approached Kelly to greet, Kelly said something inaudible and then Kelly’s security tried to pull McGregor away. McGregor was included with this, by TMZ, and that was when the situation escalated.
An initial TMZ report claimed that McGregor asked Kelly for a photo and Kelly turned it down, which McGregor spokeswoman Karen Kessler denied in a statement to ESPN.
“Conor McGregor did not ask anyone for a photo or cause this incident,” Kessler wrote in the statement. “He doesn’t know Machine Gun Kelly, other than the fact that he attended Conor’s fight last July.”
McGregor downplayed the situation in a later interview with Entertainment Tonight, saying he “just showed up” and doesn’t know what happened.
“Nothing happened to me,” McGregor said. “I just fight real fighters. The people who really fight. I certainly don’t fight the white Vanilla Ice rappers. I don’t even know the guy, I don’t know anything about him unless he’s with Megan Fox.”
Kelly, 31, was asked what happened in an interview with a red carpet and made a noise with her mouth, played the microphone with her hand, and walked away.
McGregor, 33, is currently rehabilitating a broken leg in Los Angeles. On July 10, he suffered an injury in UFC 264 in a loss to Dustin Poirier, an event Kelly attended with Fox at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. McGregor, the biggest star in UFC history, is the first UFC fighter to have had two belts in different weight divisions at once, but has lost three of his last four.
In recent years, McGregor has had several actions with the law, including one at the Barclays Center. In April 2018, McGregor and 20 men stormed the Barclays loading dock after a day in the UFC media in search of McGregor’s rival, Khabib Nurmagomedov. During that conflict, McGregor threw a metal cart out the window of a bus full of UFC fighters. He was arrested on charges of assault and criminal mischief. McGregor hired a resource and was ordered to do community service and take an anger management course.