Conor McGregor does not deserve any respect and especially doesn’t deserve sympathy from the MMA fan base.

Recently in November 20, 2024 Conor McGregor was found liable of rape and ordered to pay $247,000 to the victim, Nikita Hand.

Hand said on Dec. 9, 2018, Conor McGregor assaulted her after a night of partying and left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

She stated that McGregor choked her out three times before the assault took place.

Two paramedics arrived to attend Hand on Dec. 10, 2018 around 8:41 am in which one of the paramedics said that she had never seen someone as bruised in a long time.

One of the paramedics who showed up to the scene, Neil Dempsey, told the court that he found Hand very distressed and had physical marks on her.

She said she had been sexually assaulted and was concerned about a tampon she had inside her which had been there for some time.

The tampon was so difficult to remove that she required surgery to remove it completely.

This is still an ongoing case as McGregor is attempting to appeal the verdict of the case. He said everything was consensual and is still trying to claim his innocence.

However with all this information and the court finding McGregor liable of rape in civil court, there are still fans who want to ignore everything and blindly support McGregor.

Many fans are still arguing the typical argument fans would make when a high profile athlete is accused of sexual assault.

They are accusing Hand of lying and only suing McGregor for money because according to fans, you’re only in court after six years later because of money.

His fans are choosing to ignore the fact that it’s quite common for sexual assault victims to try to avoid reporting as many women are scared of the consequences of coming forward or they simply wants to forget it ever happened and many victims often blame themselves.

Not to mention the assault took place in 2018 when McGregor was still one of the biggest athletes in the world at the time after boxing Floyd Mayweather and came back to UFC in 2018 fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov, breaking the record for the most pay per view buy with 2.4 million buys.

It’s reasonable for her not to speak up back in 2018 because of how much influence McGregor had back then. So the idea that she’s only taking him to court just now because of money is a ridiculous claim to make.

However that’s not the only claim that fans will say about Hand suing him six years later because but more insensitive are the comments fans were making towards Hands.

Fans took to her social media comments, calling her a whale and even saying that Hands is too ugly and out of McGregor’s league to be assaulted.

I wish I could say I was surprised by all these comments but I’m not, this is the same fanbase that had defended Jon Jones who beat his wife and a man who ran from the scene after an aa pregnant woman in because “an outside the cage issue shouldn’t matter because that doesn’t affect anything in the cage.”

But when Jon Jones took steroids, something that does affect someone in the cage, the same fans don’t want to hold him accountable.

So it doesn’t surprise me that fans will make excuses for their favorite athlete no matter what their actions are.

But the sad part about all this is that this behavior from fans is quite common in every sports fandom with them excusing the horrible action some athletes have done.

It’s time to hold these athletes’ actions such as those of Conor McGregor a lot more accountable because this is getting embarrassing. We should not show them any leniency just because of their status or just because they entertain us as fans.