We all go to war: The wild story of Irish fan who leapt in the Octagon t…

During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” the champ champ Daniel Cormier told an unbelievable story about an Irish fan seated behind DC at UFC 229.

“He’s wearing this nice jacket,” began Cormier, as transcribed by Simon Samano for MMAjunkie. So he’s standing behind me, and he goes, ‘Who do you got in the fight?’ This guy’s completely not into the game, right? So I go, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna go Khabib.’ So after the fight, when we all jumped the rail, I’m like in the Octagon pushing, and the guy’s like checking on Conor. He was like a fan. He was just like a fan that jumped the rail when everyone else jumped the rail and got all the way to the Octagon – he was like checking on Conor. I (later) asked my wife, ‘Salina, what happened with that guy? Was he with McGregor?’ She goes, ‘Daniel, after he went and checked to make sure Conor was OK, he just got back in his seat.’”

That sounds implausible in the extreme, but here it is.

https://twitter.com/Sir_DavidMartin/status/1052321766721314816

The game fan’s name is David Martin, 41, and he explained what happened in an exclusive interview with Andy Nesbitt for For The Win.

I saw Daniel getting really upset and emotional over what happened and he’s there with his two kids and his team was under attack, said Martin. The last thing I wanted was Daniel Cormier in the ring emotional and swinging. I jumped on Daniel’s back and put my arms around him and pleaded with him not to go in. My arms were around him and he couldn’t get over the rail and I thought, ‘Jesus Christ, this guy is gonna turn around and throw me to the ground for hanging on to him.’ I kept saying to him, ‘Your kids are here. Your kids are here.’ He calmed down and as he calmed down I saw the guy in the red shirt jump over the rail and I thought, ‘Oh Jesus, Conor has nobody in there with him.’”

I put my hands on top of Daniel to leapfrog him because he’s not that tall. I leaped over him and saw the [Octagon] door open and I wanted to get in there and protect my countryman. I thought there were all Russian guys in there and I wasn’t having that. … John Kavanagh got there right before I did and got security around Conor. [Conor] heard my voice telling him to calm down and he heard I was from Dublin.

I was talking to him and I just held onto him and pushed security away with Kavanagh because he didn’t want them on him too much, he wanted them to back off a bit. I put an arm on Conor and one on the cage and told him to calm down and breathe. … the last thing I wanted was for Conor to go after everyone.

If that guy that hit Conor in the head hit him in a different spot, like right-center of the back of the head and it could have been a fatal blow and Conor could have been dead. It happens all the time at nightclubs, somebody gets punched right in back of head and it’s a fatal blow. Just because you’re Conor McGregor it doesn’t mean that something like that can’t happen to you. I thought Conor could be killed and those guys were going in to kill him and that’s what I could not have happen.

I wouldn’t say adrenaline took over. I’d say patriotism took over first. I thought Russia was attacking Ireland. I thought a bunch of Russians were jumping in and this guy [McGregor] was tired and beaten down from the fight and was being attacked by what I thought were a bunch of Russian fans. … When one of us goes to war, we all go to war. That’s the patriotic thing to do. I wasn’t going in to fight but to protect a defenseless man who could have been assaulted.

D.C. doesn’t get enough credit for his role in it. If not for D.C. Khabib would have gone back for Conor, there’s no question in my mind. Daniel was a champion of keeping the peace.

Cormier ended up getting his ticket prices refunded for the role he played in calming the situation.

I was trying to go up to talk to him and they kept pushing me,” said Cormier, as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr. for MMA Mania. “But, he kept telling them, ‘This is my captain, let him through.’ So when I finally got close enough to him I told him, ‘Hey, what in the world is going on? What are you doing? You have got to calm down. And he said, ‘Okay captain, give me my belt.’ The dude was worked up. I have honestly never seen him act like that.

I buy tickets. I buy tickets for my kids to go to the fights. We were given tickets and I buy tickets and then the whole fight happens. Then Dana calls me back and says, ‘We are giving you your money back because you helped us calm everybody down. We can’t charge you for tickets.’

Someone get Martin his ticket refunded too!