Conor McGregor Calls Machine Gun Kelly a 'Vanilla Boy Rapper' After Fiery VMAs Confrontation (Exclusive)

The MMA fighter tells ET he 'only fights real fighters.'

The MTV Video Music Awards got a little heated, before the show even kicked off. A fiery moment between Machine Gun Kelly and Conor McGregor was caught by photographers on the red carpet -- but McGregor insisted to ET backstage that "absolutely nothing" happened between them. 

"Absolutely nothing. I don't know. He showed up, and I don't know. I don't know the guy," McGregor told ET's Rachel Smith. 

"Nothing happened with me, I only fight real fighters, people that actually fight, you know what I mean," he continued. "I certainly don't fight little vanilla boy rappers. I don't even know the guy. I don't know anything about him, except that he's with Megan Fox." 

According to an eyewitness, McGregor and MGK "exchanged some words" on the red carpet, before the MMA fighter lunged at the musician. MGK and Fox subsequently left the carpet and threatened not to pose for photos, the eyewitness says, but then they returned once McGregor left.

Kevin Mazur/MTV VMAs 2021/Getty Images for MTV/ ViacomCBS
Kevin Mazur/MTV VMAs 2021/Getty Images for MTV/ ViacomCBS
Noam Galai/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS
Jeff Kravitz/MTV VMAs 2021/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS

McGregor and MGK's confrontation certainly didn't look like "nothing."

While speaking with ET on the red carpet, Ja Rule relayed what he had heard about the moment. "I heard there was a fight with Machine Gun and Conor McGregor just over there about 10 minutes ago," he said. "That's what I heard over there, I'm just relaying the message." 

"I got the tea early," he added. 

However, McGregor was later all smiles on the VMAs stage, where he presented an award to Justin Bieber, while MGK is set to perform "Papercuts" with Travis Barker. 

-- Reporting by Darla Murray. 

The 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, hosted by Doja Cat, aired live on Sunday, Sept. 12. The VMAs is the #1 social telecast of the year with 38M interactions, beating the Super Bowl for the time first ever. 

For complete VMAs coverage, keep checking in with ETonline.com

RELATED CONTENT: