Andy Ryan had his say on the crazy scenes involving Conor McGregor at Bellator 187 in Dublin on Friday night
The head coach of Team Ryano was cornering his fighter John Redmond in his bout against fellow-Irishman Charlie Ward.
When Ward dropped Redmond, which seemingly ended the bout, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor jumped the fence and into the cage to celebrate. Chaos ensued when McGregor shoved referee Marc Goddard prior to slapping a Bellator official not long after leaving the cage for the first time.
Ryan believes that McGregor was given free reign to do a he pleased on account of his celebrity and standing in the MMA world (via MMAFighting):
“That’s Conor’s good friend in there that has won, so of course emotions are going to be running high. For me, I think the promotion should have Conor and his guests in a better position,” explained Ryan.
“Conor was standing directly behind us. He wasn’t interfering with our cornering or anything like that, but there was no event security around him whatsoever apart from the people that he had with him.
“I think it meant a lot for them to have him at their show, and they didn’t think about what would happen if things boiled over.
“A fan jumped into the cage during the last fight of the night and the security dealt with the situation straight away. They weren’t treating Conor like anyone else that jumped in the cage and that’s probably why things were able escalate to the level that it did.”
Ryan recounted that he had to act as security following the fracas:
“The 10-second warning went off and me and John Donnelly were making our way towards the cage. I didn’t see John (Redmond) getting hit, but then I obviously saw the aftermath,” he remembered.
“After Conor jumped into the cage, I had to start doing security on the cage door myself because a load of fans were trying to run in with him.”
“With all this going on, Marc Goddard hadn’t got a chance to talk to the commission to see what was happening. He had jumped in just before the round ended, and with everything that was going on, he hadn’t got time to establish whether the fight had been brought to an end yet,” said Ryan.
“He was trying to get some order back in the cage and that’s why he said, ‘the fight’s not over, lads, you’re going to have to leave the cage.’
“That’s when all the mayhem happened. I think Conor thought the fight was going to continue and that’s when he went over to him and had words.”
Ryan believes that Bellator and the Commission have a lot to answer for:
“What annoyed me was, Conor has his own security there, there was event security there, and they didn’t seem to have a grip on the situation at all. John Redmond nearly got trampled on.
“I honestly feel like the promotion and the commission need to take some of the blame here because they were more interested in trying not to upset Conor than looking after John Redmond.
“John missed out on some attention that he needed because the event security didn’t have a handle on the situation.”
