A court in Ibiza, Spain has opened up an investigation into claims that UFC fighter Conor McGregor attacked a woman during lavish celebrations for his 34th birthday on his three-deck yacht last July.
The martial arts fighter is said to have invited the woman, who has not been named, to his private yacht after partying with her at the Ocean Beach Club, according to the Majorica Daily Bulletin. His wife and other friends were also on his luxury yacht, estimated to be worth nearly $4 million.
While on the yacht, the woman, who has known McGregor since they lived in the same neighborhood in Dublin, says he invited her to a private area where he allegedly became violent to such an extent the woman jumped into the sea. She was eventually rescued by the Red Cross.
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The woman, who did not file a complaint at the time in Spain because of what she described as language barriers, did tell investigators in Dublin about the alleged incident upon her return. After that, Dublin officials contacted a court in Ibiza. According to court documents seen by local media in Dublin, the woman said the fighter had become aggressive and snapped when she called out to a friend for help, triggering an angry response.
“His behaviour changed at that moment,” she said in her statement, according to the Spanish media. She says he kicked her belly and punched her face and then threatened to drown her if she called for help. “It was as if he was possessed,” she told investigators. “I knew that I had to get off the boat because I thought that he was going to kill me.”
Karen Kessler, a spokesperson for Conor McGregor, said: “Mr. McGregor is steadfast in his denial of all the accusations made by a guest on his boat.”
Around the time the incident is alleged to have happened, reports of the fighter’s wild birthday celebrations were the focus of British tabloids, which reported that his chosen guests were all treated to his own Proper 12 branded whiskey. The festivities took place on his Lamborghini Tecnomar 63 yacht and his Prestige 750 triple-decker yacht where the Irish woman says she was attacked.
The allegations follow a 2018 incident in which McGregor was sued by a different Irish woman for rape.
The champion has a history of assault arrests—20 in all—including pleading no contest to throwing a metal dolly at a bus carrying competing UFC fighters in April 2018 for which he was sentenced to community service and anger management treatment. A year later, he was arrested in Miami Beach after allegedly breaking a man’s phone after he tried to take a photo of him. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in a Dublin pub the same year.
