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MMA

24th May 2018

Bellator president says Conor McGregor welcome at landmark show featuring Charlie Ward

Remember what happened the last time?

Ben Kiely

The last time Conor McGregor attended a Charlie Ward fight, all hell broke loose.

Conor McGregor made a show of himself at the last Bellator event he attended. He was standing cage side in the 3Arena as his training partner Charlie Ward took on John Redmond in the curtain-jerker of Bellator 187’s televised card.

When Ward knocked down Redmond with seconds left in the first round, McGregor jumped the gun… and then the fence. Marc Goddard had yet to call the fight off as a contest, but McGregor leapt into the cage thinking it was over. Once Goddard tried to remove him from the cage, McGregor shoved him and a little later, slapped a commission member in the face.

It was a real shitshow and one that nobody would want to see repeated.

Welcome

Bellator 200 goes down in London this Friday. Ward takes on Martin Hudson on the preliminary card and interestingly, McGregor will be in England this weekend. UFC president Dana White has confirmed that he will meet the former featherweight and lightweight champion at UFC Liverpool. So one of the questions people are asking is, will McGregor show up?

Bellator president Scott Coker says they haven’t extended any invitations to anyone, celebrities are expected to show up. If McGregor is among the famous contingent in the crowd, he will be a welcome spectator. (quotes via MMA Fighting)

“I think that whoever’s there will be there themselves. And I think that will be the case because I think that after New York things have calmed down. Everybody has a keen sense of understanding and if he wins or loses, it’s a fight and you move forward. As far as having some kind of situation, look, we’ll do our best to prevent that, but I don’t think it’s going to be an issue this time.”

“Of course (Conor McGregor will be welcome). Conor McGregor’s a big star. He has done so many things for MMA  that I don’t think we should forget about. A few hiccups here and there, but let’s forgive him for it.”

The last time McGregor attended an MMA show was BAMMA 35 in Dublin’s 3Arena. The Dubliner represented himself very well on that occasion. All the reports from that night were glowing. This didn’t go unnoticed by Coker.

“I know that he’s been going to different events around the UK and he has fighters and he’s very big on the gym and (John) Kavanagh. He supports his guys which, to me, is like, ‘Hey, that’s fantastic!’ It’s admirable and these are his people and he let’s people know it. I think we’ll be fine and we’ll all have a great show.”

Don’t be surprised if we see McGregor at the two big MMA events in the UK this weekend.