UFC star Conor McGregor has spoken out for the first time since his arrest in Miami, Florida, on Monday evening, after allegedly slapping a cell phone out of a fan’s hands, stomping on the screen several times and then walking away with it.
The former two-division champ posted a photo with an emotional caption, just hours after his release from Miami’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Centre.
“Patience in this world is a virtue I continue to work on”, McGregor wrote. “I love my fans dearly. Thank you all”.
In wake of the altercation with a fan in the early hours of Monday at the entrance to a famous Miami Beach hotel, Fountainebleu, McGregor faces several charges – one for strong-armed robbery, second-degree felony, criminal mischief, and a third-degree felony, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by MMA Fighting.
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The document states that the reported victim, Ahmed Abdirzak, was attempting to take a photo of McGregor when the MMA fighter allegedly ripped a $1,000 smartphone from his hand, causing it to be damaged.
According to his attorney, McGregor, who was released on a $12,500 bail, “appreciates the response of law enforcement and pledges full cooperation”.
The incident has been widely chewed over on the Internet, with users eagerly reposting the 30-year-old’s pictures, and hilarious memes on the subject, suggesting that McGregor fully does justice to his nickname, “The Notorious”:
Some even started a campaign in McGregor’s defence, under the respective hashtag #FreeConor:
Multiple users couldn’t help but crack a couple of jokes about the MMA fighter’s stardom and his worrisome number of arrests as of late:
Per media reports, “The Notorious” just recently completed 25 hours of community service in New York’s churches, which he was obliged to do following his guilty plea to a misdemeanour stemming from the infamous bus attack in Brooklyn last year, which also involved his octagon opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov, among other UFC 223 participants.
McGregor was also required to complete a psychological course of anger management, which he is also reported to have fulfilled, along with a few conversations with a priest during his community service in the churches.