McGregor receives $150K fine, community service for bottle-throwing incident

Conor McGregor will be holding on to his beverages tightly from now on.

Monday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission voted to hand McGregor a $150,000 fine and 50 hours of community service for his role in an Aug. 17 press conference scuffle that ended with him hurling cans and water bottles at Nate Diaz.

The fine was determined by the commission agreeing to take 5% of McGregor's show purse for his UFC 202 bout with Diaz - disclosed as $3 million. A portion of that fine will go toward an anti-bullying campaign, in which McGregor is expected to participate.

Diaz's hearing will occur at a later date, as will previously scheduled hearings for Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar. Jones and Lesnar are currently on temporary suspensions, stemming from violations of the USADA anti-doping program. All three fighters' teams asked for and received continuances.

The next NSAC meeting is scheduled for Nov. 10.

McGregor was present for Monday's meeting via phone call and expressed remorse for his behavior, citing extreme pressure he was under as an explanation.

"I want to apologize for the incident, I acted wrong," McGregor said. "I was acting very erratically."

The UFC featherweight champion then said that he would be open to whatever punishment the NSAC agreed upon. Initially, the attorney general suggested a $25,000 fine and 25 hours of community service, but the penalty was increased after multiple video reviews of the incident and discussion among the commissioners.

Chairman Anthony Marnell III played down the incident and even suggested that McGregor's and Diaz's actions were premeditated in an attempt to drum up interest in their rematch.

Commissioner Pat Lundvall proposed the 5% fine, emphasizing that McGregor needed to be "humbled," while commissioner Francisco Aguilar argued the monetary fine was inconsequential to an athlete of McGregor's stature, and that doubling the community service was more important.

Other suggestions involved raising the fine to 10% ($300,000), and McGregor using his resources to assist in the creation of safety videos for the NSAC.

Most importantly for the UFC, McGregor did not receive a suspension. He is scheduled to challenge lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in the main event of UFC 205 on Nov. 12 in New York City.