The Italian DJ Conor McGregor allegedly attacked on Saturday has officially pressed charges against the former UFC two-division champion.
In a Tuesday interview with CNN [h /t BJPenn], Francesco Facchinetti detailed the incident that made headlines over the weekend in the sports and MMA news cycle.
The original reports of the story came via the popular DJ’s significant other, as she took to social media to make claims that the Irish MMA superstar had attacked Facchinetti. We now have more clarity as to how and why the alleged attack occurred.
Italian Dj presses charges against Conor McGregor for weekend attack
Facchinetti claims he and a group of friends were invited to a party being thrown by McGregor at the St. Regis Hotel in Rome, Italy. However, after a certain point, the festivities were not to the DJ and his party’s liking, so they decided to leave. A decision that rubbed the former UFC featherweight champion the wrong way.
The Italian DJ says “Notorious” lashed out at him over their attempt to leave and subsequently punched him in the mouth and nose. Facchinetti alleges he incurred a concussion from the attack and decided to press charges against McGregor after a long discussion with his friends and family.
“The world needs to know the fact that he is dangerous. … He is dangerous, he needs to be stopped,” Facchinetti said.
In a separate interview with Sherdog, Facchinetti claims that if security footage of the incident becomes a part of the investigation it could be a career-altering revelation for the MMA superstar. “If that video is going out, sorry for Mr. McGregor but this is the last time he can punch in normal life and inside the octagon because I’m waiting for that type of video.”
On Wednesday, officials from the hotel told CNN that they are cooperating with the Carabinieri police department and will be making any security footage they have available to local authorities.
“We continue to offer the police our full support in their investigation, and have shared all available CCTV with them,” a St. Regis spokesperson wrote in a statement to CNN.
McGregor (22-6) has not competed inside the Octagon since his July technical knockout loss to Dustin Poirier in the pairs trilogy fight at UFC 264. The 33-year-old suffered a fractured leg in the opening round of the bout, leading to a doctor stoppage defeat. His second straight loss to the Poirier. He is expected to be out of action until the second quarter of 2022.
The incident is just another instance of McGregor having physical altercations in public that lead to time in court. His most recent and headline-grabbing confrontation came during the summer on the red carpet of the MTV video music awards. Where he and rapper Machine Gun Kelly had a run-in that forced security to separate the UFC talent from the popular lyricist.
