Conor McGregor Buys Dublin Pub Where He Assaulted A Man, Bans Him
UFC legend Conor McGregor purchased a Dublin pub where he was caught on camera in 2019 punching a man over a dispute.
According to USA Today, McGregor plead guilty on a single assault charge stemming from the punch, paying about $2.4 million to purchase the Marble Arch pub in his home area of Drimnagh, Dublin.
McGregor tweeted immediately after news of banning the assault victim from the pub:
Ye and your mans barred https://t.co/aVM5mcIA3F
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 22, 2021
The Irish Mirror interviewed the victim, Desmond Keogh, to get his reaction:
“I’m not really concerned because I probably wouldn’t be going back to it now. I wouldn’t be going back anyway, probably especially now.
I wouldn’t want to be spending money in his pub to be honest.”
50-year-old Keogh said he found out about being “barred” after reading it in the paper, and says McGregor’s tweet didn’t phase him. “I didn’t really make much of it. It’s no skin off my nose really. I’ve a lot of friends there,” he continued. “I probably drank there for about 14 years. The fact that he was in the wrong you know why blame me? It seems weird to me. It’s disingenuous.”
Mr. Keogh added that he felt the incident, which happened two years ago this month, was in the past, “he had to go to court and he pleaded guilty.” He did wish that McGregor should have had to pay a bigger fine, saying “I thought he might have got a bigger fine from the court, that’s all.” His fine was one thousand euros, or about $1100.
McGregor punched Keogh because he felt disrespected; Keogh refused to drink a free shot of his Proper 12 whiskey. Keogh recalled, “He approached me from the left hand side. I was ready to go. He said, ‘Will you have one of my whiskeys?’ I said ‘no.’ I don’t like whiskey. I’m a Guinness man. I put the glass up on (the counter). He said, ‘No, you will have it with me.’ I said ‘I don’t want it.’ I think I put it back up again. He obviously got aggravated… and that’s when he gave me the punch.”
Watch the video of McGregor’s altercation with Keogh here.
After pleading guilty, McGregor issued a statement in which he apologized saying, “What I did was very wrong and I’d like to apologize again to the injured party and today before the court and assure you that nothing of this nature will happen again.”
