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The story surrounding sex assault accusations against Conor McGregor at an NBA finals game between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets has taken another strange turn.
The UFC superstar and recent Ultimate Fighter coach has been accused of forcing himself on a woman he was seen with at multiple points throughout the night of Friday, June 9th during game 4 of the 2023 NBA finals. Alongside claims the 34-year-old former two-division champion forcibly kissed, elicited oral sex from, and attempted to sodomize his alleged victim in a bathroom at the Miami Heat’s home arena, a letter from the woman’s attorney claims that McGregor’s actions were aided by security staff for both the NBA and Miami Heat.
Attorney claims NBA offered $100k to stay quiet
As such, Ariel Mitchell—the alleged victim’s legal counsel—is seeking settlements not just with the ‘Notorious’ Irishman, but with the Miami-based NBA franchise and with the league itself. To bolster their claims of culpability, Mitchell recently told the Daily Mail that the NBA worked to keep the allegations against McGregor quiet—with a second, unidentified source claiming the league offered $100,000 to the unnamed woman to keep the story on the down low. Supposedly, the NBA retracted that offer once news of the incident became public.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mitchell explained why she felt the Miami Heat were liable in the case.
“Some of the security guards who stood by when this happened were not McGregor’s. They were hired by the Heat,” Mitchell claimed. “They decided to cater to a celebrity instead of protecting a young woman in trouble.”
NBA denies hush money claims
“This claim is categorically false,” NBA chief communications officer Mike Bass told the Daily Mail, denying that they had ever offered any money to McGregor’s accuser.
It’s not just McGregor, the NBA, or the Heat that are finding themselves in the crosshairs here, either. In the same Daily Mail article Ariel Mitchell also took the Miami Police Department to task, alleging that officers initially turned her client away—telling the woman she should contact an attorney before filing a report when she first went to the station to report the assault.
“They know what they did,” Mitchell responded, when asked if they intended to sue the department as well. “They turned her away. They turned away the victim of a sexual assault,” she added—furthermore claiming that she had to take her client back to the station and demand that clothing supposedly containing McGregor’s DNA be taken into evidence.
“We did open the case when the victim first came in [on June 11th],” Miami Police Department spokesman Michael Vega said. “As it happens in many investigations, she had to come back for additional information. I can’t imagine that any officer or detective in this department would turn away the victim of a sex crime.”
Video of McGregor with accuser after alleged assault
One of the more startling aspects of this case has been the publication of video showing Conor McGregor and his accuser together in public apparently after the alleged sexual assault incident. It’s footage that Mitchell claims bolsters her client’s story.
“My client has always stated that there would be video of before and after,” Mitchell said in a statement to TMZ alongside the video’s publication, “and in those videos she emphasized that the difference in the interactions between them would be visibly noticeable.
“This again is another video that supports what my client has been saying and supports what she told the police since the inception of this incident.”
McGregor’s legal team, however, has also claimed it as a key piece of evidence that the accuser is merely attempting to shake the fighter down for money.
“While the claimant’s story has changed yet again,” McGregor’s attorney Barbara R. Llanes said in a statement, “Our account of the evening has never changed.
“This video only reinforces our position. We look forward to the swift conclusion of the investigation.”
McGregor and the UFC
In the meantime, the UFC has been non-committal regarding McGregor’s future with the promotion. The current season of the Ultimate Fighter, featuring Conor McGregor coaching alongside former Bellator champion Michael Chandler, continues to air as originally scheduled.
A fight between the two men had been planned for sometime later this year, however the certainty of that booking coming to fruition has been slowly fading, with seemingly unexplained delays to McGregor’s entry into the USADA drug testing pool. As for McGregor’s legal issues, the UFC is reportedly awaiting the conclusion of official proceedings before acting.
“The organization is aware of the recent allegations regarding Conor McGregor and will continue to gather additional details regarding the incident. UFC will allow the legal process to play out before making any additional statements.”
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