Forbes’ fourth highest paid athlete in the world is appearing in court for the second time in two months.
Irish Mixed Martial Arts champion Conor McGregor is due to appear in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Thursday afternoon on charges relating to an incident which saw him launch an unprovoked attack in New York some months ago.
Back in April, the Crumlin-native and his 30-strong entourage gained unauthorised access and rampaged the Barclays Centre. The group of men made their presence known and continued to cause a huge disturbance in the loading area of the New York venue.
Video footage of the incident went viral after grainy clips appeared to show the 29-year-old throwing a hand-truck at a bus full of fighters after a news conference.
It’s understood in UFC circles that McGregor’s motive for the attack was the rumour that he was set to be stripped of his UFC lightweight champion title. The bus he attacked was reportedly carrying Khabib Nurmagomedov, a fighter who was hot on the heels of McGregor’s success at the time.
The aftermath of the incident saw a bus being damaged and two UFC fighters allegedly injured.
According to McGregor’s Instagram, he and co-accused Cian Cowley (a friend of Notorious’ who is also appearing in court on Thursday) jetted out to New York in a private plane earlier this week.
McGregor’s court appearance is scheduled for 9am local time (2pm Irish time) and continues on from the first court appearance he attended in relation to the incident on 6 April.
The MMA fighter has been charged with several misdemeanours, including thirteen counts of menacing, four counts of assault (recklessly cause physical injury to another person), one count of attempted assault with intent to cause physical injury, and one count of reckless endangerment.
It’s believed by some that McGregor could face up to 11 years in prison for two felony charges, according to New York sentencing guidelines.
But the most serious charges on his rap sheet are two felony counts for criminal mischief, according to online court records, and could result in a maximum sentence of 11 years.
However, a Brooklyn lawyer came out recently and said that he believes Notorious will, quite easily, avoid jail time.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
