Conor McGregor forced to address sexual assault verdict ahead of UFC 329 comeback: 'It stings deep'

[ASFN Admin]

Ahead of his return fight against Max Holloway at UFC 329 this Saturday, Conor McGregor continues to be chased by the verdict in his Nikita Hand sexual assault case.

In late 2024, McGregor, 37, was found liable in a high-profile Irish civil trial where Hand claimed the Irish star raped her in a Dublin hotel in 2018. McGregor, despite insisting any physical interactions between the two were consensual, subsequently lost two appeals related to the verdict in 2025, with the case reaching as high as the Irish Supreme Court.

McGregor made his first fight-week media appearance for UFC 329 at media day on Wednesday in Las Vegas, with reporters confronting him on whether he could understand why some people might not want to see him back after the case.

Said a defiant McGregor:

"I'm an innocent man, and I'll stand for my innocence until the day I go out. That is still a situation where I fight. There's a reason why 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. I know the truth, and I know that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. And I know that anything in the darkness will soon come to light, and I trust in God that it's coming. You best believe that it's coming. I look very, very forward to the day."

Saturday’s upcoming Holloway rematch marks McGregor's first professional bout of any kind since a gruesome loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021. McGregor suffered a bad fracture in his lower leg at the end of the bout, leading, in part, to his five-year hiatus.

Speaking further on his rough road since the heights of his UFC championship prime, McGregor said Wednesday that he ultimately fell into the "trap" of his fame and fortune.

"Obviously [I did]. You know, 2017, double-weight world champion, Floyd Mayweather [fight] banked, and then I launch an Irish whiskey. I didn't drink heavily, if 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. 'Sell this, Conor.' OK, I leave my property with two bottles under my arm, and that was it. I was cocked.

"God gave me these lessons. That's it. I was trapped and caught. It is what it is. I trust in God. I trust in my journey, and I trust in the truth. If the world is against the truth, then I am against the world. That is where I stand."

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