What happened between Conor McGregor and Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza?
Conor McGregor has managed to pick fights with almost every noteworthy individual in the combat sports community. His beef with Showtime head honcho Stephen Espinoza can be traced back to the time his microphone was cut off during a media event.
The Irishman managed to fight his way to the top of the food chain and was at the peak of his influence in 2017. That was when he was hurtling towards a big-money crossover boxing scrap against Floyd Mayweather.
Ahead of the fight, in the first edition of their multi-city media tour, Conor McGregor was being his usual abrasive self when he found his microphone cut off while speaking. He took issue with the interruption and threw shade at Stephen Espinoza on-stage.
"While we're at it, f**k Showtime too. You little weasel. Look. at you, you f***ing weasel. I can see it in your eyes. You're a f***ing b**ch. Cutting my mic off? Cut the champ-champ's mic off? Hell no! You f***ing weasel."
Watch Conor McGregor trash Stephen Espinoza on-stage below:
When Conor McGregor and Dana White slammed Stephen Espinoza for misquoting pay-per-view numbers
Although both UFC president Dana White and Conor McGregor broke banks in the wake of their association with Stephen Espinoza, they were rather displeased.
Their qualms were derived from the way Espinoza claimed that the McGregor-Mayweather fight had earned the second highest number of pay-per-view buys in history. Dana White, on the other hand, had projected the event to take the top spot with relative ease.
White, in an interview with Yahoo! Sports, slammed Showtime Sports and Espinoza and vowed to never work with them again. Espinoza clapped back at the UFC kingpin on social media, claiming that he had been honest with respect to the pay-per-view sales.
Conor McGregor, in the wake of Espinoza's post on social media, took to Twitter to nuke Espinoza for the way he responded to Dana White.
Shut your weasel mouth. Who gives a fuck about the North American numbers when we are the GLOBAL KINGS you shmuck. WORLDWIDE. No.1! twitter.com/stephenespinoz…