During the latest MTV Video Music Awards 2021, rapper Machine Gun Kelly and UFC champ Conor McGregor had to be separated after getting into a physical disagreement just before the award show went air at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
After the episode, a source explained that McGregor, who was a presenter at the award show, had inquired Kelly for a photo, but that his proposal was rejected by the star’s crew. An eyewitness verified parts of that account, saying that McGregor was trying to meet Kelly, who was standing in line for red carpet photos when the MMA fighter was interrupted and pushed by the artist’s security.
Continuing to move ahead, Kelly "sort of snarled" at McGregor, said an observer who pointed out that McGregor, while walking the carpet with a cane after a current injury in the ring, "fell back and dropped his cane." He held onto most of his drink, though, shouting something along the lines of "that fucking punk punched me.”
Sources also said that McGregor fell, spilt his drink then threw the remainder at Kelly. "Conor went in on it a little bit," the source explained, noting that the fighter after falling over, retrieved his cane and began swaying it in Kelly’s direction.
Another source said that security had to get entangled and "everyone was screaming.” "
McGregor’s handlers were "begging him" to leave the matter go and it seemed Kelly and girlfriend Megan Fox did. Following that, Kelly and Fox, donning a Mugler dress, walked the carpet posing for photographers. Before the event, Kelly posted a picture of the couple dolled up for the evening with a sweet caption: "I found a mermaid.”
McGregor, dressed up in a pink sports jacket, black frilled shirt and black pants, walked soon after with girlfriend Dee Devlin. He was at the VMAs to present the artist of the year award to Justin Bieber.
After the whole episode, McGregor spoke with Entertainment Tonight and told that "absolutely nothing" happened and he doesn’t fight "little vanilla boy rappers.” "Absolutely nothing. I don’t know. He showed up, and I don’t know. I don’t know the guy," said McGregor when the outlet inquired him for facts of what led up to the fight.
He added, "Nothing happened with me, I only fight real fighters, people that fight, you know what I mean. I certainly don’t fight little vanilla boy rappers. I don’t even know the guy. I don’t know anything about him, except that he’s with Megan Fox.”
While speaking to Variety backstage, Kelly refused to react to the "scuffle" and exasperatedly enclosed the mic. “We're not allowed to say," opposed Fox. While Kelly’s agent did not immediately respond to a plea for comment by Variety, a consul for McGregor denied her client asked the singer for a photo.
The representative, at the time, told, "Conor and Dee are in their seats enjoying the show. Conor appreciates all his fans. Conor does not know MGK other than someone who attended his last fight.”
A video was captured by a VMAs attendee and posted on Twitter seemed to show McGregor lunge toward Kelly and yell at him as security guards held him back. It doesn’t look like MGK and McGregor had any prior beef and the singer was even noticed attending his UFC 260 fight in Los Vegas with Fox as well as Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker in March.
At the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, hosted by Doja Cat, Kelly was planned to perform his latest track ‘Papercuts' with Travis Barker about halfway through the awards ceremony, but just as the stage crew was equipping the production, it was pushed back to the end of the broadcast. It’s unspecific why the last-minute change was made, or whether the red carpet clash had anything to do with it.