McGregor insists 'I am an innocent man' ahead of UFC 329 return against Holloway

Conor McGregor used his UFC 329 media day appearance to once again declare his innocence, pushing back against criticism of his return to competition following a civil court verdict in Ireland that found him liable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand in a Dublin hotel in 2018.

A jury sided with Hand and awarded her £206,000 ($271,742) in damages. McGregor subsequently appealed the verdict, but the appeal was rejected by the courts. Police had investigated the original claims, though criminal charges were never filed. Hand then pursued a civil lawsuit, during which she testified that McGregor had “raped and battered” her. McGregor, taking the stand in his own defence, maintained that the encounter was consensual.

“I am an innocent man,” McGregor said on Wednesday. “I’ll stand for my innocence until the day I go out. This is still a situation where I fight. There’s a reason it didn’t go where it went and went to a civil trial. It is what it is. It stings deep. I continue to fight.”

He added: “I know the truth. I know that lying lips are an abomination to the lord. I know that anything done in darkness will soon come to light. I trust in god that it’s coming. You best believe it’s coming and I look very, very forward to the day.”

McGregor, now 37, also reflected on a period of personal turbulence that followed the peak of his career. In 2016 he became the first simultaneous two-division UFC champion, then earned a reported $100 million from his boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. Around the same time he launched Proper No. 12 whiskey, a brand he and his partners later sold to Proximo Spirits in 2021 for a reported $600 million.

“2017, double weight world champion, Floyd Mayweather banked and then I launch an Irish whiskey,” McGregor said. “I didn’t drink heavily at all in that time of my life. I was an athlete at the top of my game. Next thing you know, there’s thousands upon thousands of bottles in my garage. They’d tell me: sell this, Conor. OK, I’d leave my property with two bottles under my arm. That was it. I was caught.”

McGregor said he has since refocused on faith and family, crediting that shift with putting him back on track to fight. He faces Max Holloway in the UFC 329 main event on Saturday.