Conor McGregor was back on the defensive to dodge his latest language controversy.
Two months removed from his hyped professional boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather, and the slur-slinging circus act surrounding it, McGregor apologized for using the word “f—-t” three times while talking to another fighter and friend backstage in what he thought was a private conversation. The Irishman was caught on camera calling Andre Fili the homophobic slur during a conversation with Artem Lobov after Lobov dropped their UFC Fight Night 118 featherweight bout by unanimous decision on Oct. 21.
“I was watching a fighter — a sparring partner, a training partner, a friend, a brother of mine — who was given his health — his body health, his brain health, everything — to help me prepare for fights to give my body health and my brain health to entertain the public,” McGregor said Tuesday on RTE One’s “The Late Late Show.” “So that’s the fighter I was going to watch and support, and I witnessed him lose a fight … and a potential career-defining or career-ending fight in a manner where the other opponent was stalling and running away. And I was upset.
“And I was whispering in his ear and I was speaking on that, and I said what I said and I meant no disrespect to nobody, like the LGBTQ [community].”
McGregor was answering to footage circulated online that had caught him in the heat of his attempt to console Lobov following the loss.
“I thought you were going to sleep him,” McGregor can be heard saying to his fellow Irishman. “All I’m saying, he’s a f—-t. I never knew he was a f—-t.”
McGregor cited his past efforts of campaigning for gay marriage in Ireland as evidence that he didn’t mean to offend the LGBTQ community with his choice of words.
“You’d swear I was screaming about two people of the same sex kissing,” the 29-year-old said. “I campaigned when we were trying to get same sex marriage legalized. Again it’s another one where things just get blown up and any chance they get, they love to throw me under the bus.
“So it is what it is. I’ll just say sorry for what I said and that’s it, and try to move on from it.”
McGregor and Mayweather exchanged a flurry of questionable insults in the lead-up to their Aug. 26 fight, with McGregor telling the undefeated, black boxer to “dance for me, boy” and Mayweather calling the UFC lightweight champion a “f—-t” and a “ho.”
McGregor has yet to return to the ring, or Octagon, since his TKO loss to Mayweather but said Tuesday he’s in discussions for his next UFC bout, which could materialize in the next few months.