Conor McGregor seems amused by the Nevada Athletic Commission's hefty fine.
The UFC Featherweight Champion was fined $150,000 for his part in a water bottle throwing fiasco at a press conference ahead of his UFC 202 victory over Nate Diaz. The Nevada Athletic Commission discussed fines between $25,000 and $300,000 before settling in the middle.
Either way, McGregor doesn't sound too keen on the idea of going back to Vegas soon.
“I don’t see Nevada in my future, for the foreseeable future is how I see it,” McGregor told RollingStone.com. “I’m free to do what I want. … I’m good. I’m good. New York, New York. That’s what I think.”
McGregor is responsible for over $33 million in ticket sales over his last four fights in Nevada. His team said beforehand that the fighter would expect any punishment handed out, before the egregious one was levied. McGregor doesn't sound like he's going to be quick to pony up.
“I thought they might respect (me calling in) a little bit more,” McGregor said. “I owned up. I man’d up. I’m here. I apologized. I’m not trying to blame nobody, although they fired the rounds off first. I didn’t think they would even go that route because I didn’t think this was like a real thing. Are they going to come and arrest me or what the (expletive) is that. I wanted to give them the respect, and I felt they would have respected that, but they didn’t. So, whatever. It is what it is. Good luck trying to get it. “Respect to them, They wanted me to pay them and work for them at the same time. How can I not respect that? Good luck to them," McGregor said.
McGregor's opponent Nate Diaz was granted a continuance for his part in the incident, but McGregor isn't wishing ill of his rival.
“I do not wish to see Nate get any more or any less than me,” McGregor said. “I don’t want to see either of us have something like this happen. But we’ll see what happens. I don’t know. If they went that way on me, I don’t know what way they’re going to go on him. He threw the bottle first, but I don’t wish he get more than me or anything like that. I just wish we’d get it sorted out and get on with it and carry on.”
McGregor is scheduled to fight Eddie Alvarez for the UFC Lightweight Championship November 12 at UFC 205 in Madison Square Garden.
