UFC megastar Conor McGregor found himself at the mercy of the New York court system earlier this year. Having struck a plea deal concerning the case, “Notorious” is now facing litigation from fellow UFC lightweight Michael Chiesa.
Conor McGregor was spotted on video throwing a hand truck through the window of a UFC charter bus on April 5, 2018. Among those injured, Michael Chiesa was forced to pull out of his upcoming UFC 223 match up over wounds sustained from the fracas.
Chiesa has since decided to file a suit against Conor McGregor and the Barclays Center in which the fracas occurred for negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery and more.
Speaking to MMA Fighting, lawyer Dmitriy Shakhnevich revealed that he believes Michael Chiesa may have a strong case against the Ireland native.
“There’s definitely a legitimate case. In fact, because [McGregor] plead guilty in the criminal case. And in criminal cases the standard is higher — it’s beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s not a preponderance of the evidence. Because he did that, it’s virtually a defenseless case. You can’t defend this case, there’s no way to defend it. Even if he didn’t plead guilty, there’s 450 videos showing this. There’s really no substantive defense.”
“There’s no other way. Because there’s no defense. There’s no way Conor can defend his case — he plead guilty. He allocated in open court what he did wrong. There’s no defense that’s admissible in this case.”
“What they can do in this case is they can really put Conor through the ringer. They can make him sit for a deposition, they could tape the deposition. It could make him really uncomfortable. He doesn’t need that. He has money, he has fame, he has everything. He’s not gonna want to be dragged through the mud. He’s gonna pay whatever he has to pay. Whatever he pays will pale in comparison to what he makes in a couple of weeks. There’s really no reason for him to defend this case.”
“It’s tough to forego this possibility. The justice system is designed for this and he has a great case on the merits. There’s no downside. So, it’s tough to blame him. To get that much money in his pocket for a guy — you never know, he could lose his next fight and be cut and that’s it. It’s that kind of business. So, you can’t really judge him. I don’t. I’d encourage him to do the same thing and I’d encourage everybody else in that bus to do the same thing.”
