Last week, Conor McGregor gave his first interview since his withdrawal from UFC 200.
The interview - with ESPN's Kenny Mayne - was broadcast on yesterday on SportsCenter. In two segments, McGregor discussed being pulled from the July 9th fight with Nate Diaz and the whole Floyd Mayweather nonsense.
A part not broadcast - due to reluctance by McGregor to speak about the matter - though published in a piece by ESPN's Brett Okamoto, addressed how the Irishman felt about the death of Joao Carvalho in Dublin last month. The Portuguese MMA fighter passed away following a bout with McGregor's SBG team-mate Charlie Ward.
McGregor was in attendance at the National Stadium that night in support of Ward.
In the days after Carvalho's death, McGregor said journalists turned up at his mother's house seeking quotes about the 28-year-old's death.
He also says Carvalho's death affected him personally and contributed to his lack of desire to appear at UFC media events. The Dubliner was scheduled to travel to Las Vegas a week after the tragedy.
I had fucking journalists knocking down my mother's door, you know what I mean. That's not what I signed up to do -- have people knocking on my mother's door, talking about a kid dying. It's not nice to see a kid die like that. It does something to you. And there's been show after show canceled in Ireland since that. It's fucked up to be a part of it, and I didn't want to bring it back up and put it more on a public scale.
After all that, I did not want to be put in front of a camera and made to dance. I just wasn't feeling it.
