Conor McGregor walked into UFC 329 media day in Las Vegas carrying more than five years of ring rust and a leg that once threatened to end his career.
He also walked in as a man who an Irish civil court jury found liable for sexual assault, a verdict he has refused to accept quietly and addressed directly when given the opportunity on the biggest media stage of fight week.
Conor McGregor’s Statement
In front of the cameras ahead of his July 11 rematch with Max Holloway, Conor McGregor did not sidestep the question. He said:
“I am an innocent man, and I will stand for my innocence until the day I go out… There is a reason it did not go where it went, and it went to a civil trial… I continue to fight. I know the truth… If the world is against the truth, then I am against the world.”
The Legal Background
The case centres on an incident involving Nikita Hand at a Dublin hotel in December 2018. An Irish High Court civil jury found Conor McGregor liable and awarded Hand damages of nearly €250,000. McGregor denied the allegations throughout the original trial. He subsequently appealed the verdict, and the Court of Appeal rejected those appeals in July 2025. The Supreme Court then refused to hear any further appeal in December 2025, closing every remaining legal avenue available to him in the Irish courts. The civil finding therefore stands as the definitive legal outcome of the case.
McGregor choosing to speak on it at UFC 329 media day rather than deflect is deliberate. With the fight three days away and every journalist in Las Vegas present, silence would have generated its own narrative. His position has never changed since the original verdict, and it has not changed now.
Whether his statement satisfies critics or not is almost beside the point heading into July 11. The octagon has always been where ‘The Notorious’ has chosen to make his definitive statements, and Saturday night will be no different.
Also read: Ahead of UFC 329: Nikita Krylov Honored with 50-Time Clean Test Jacket
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