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Conor McGregor’s Coach and Johnny Walker Were “Kicked Out” of UFC Arena by Dana White and Co. 1 Year Ago- “Not Allowed Stay Back Stage”

Published 10/19/2023, 1:30 AM EDT

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Conor Mcgregor’s coach John Kavanaugh is possibly one of the best recognized faces in the MMA universe. So it’s safe to assume that he’s got a backstage pass at UFC events, right? It’s not like they could kick him out once the match is over. 

Now think again! Kavanaugh has always been present at Mcgregor’s fights. Even during the worst of the days, he’s always been there in The Notorious’ corner. Even when Khabib Nurmagomedov jumped the cage and Dana White looked like he was going to drop someone, Kavanaugh was there. So, it’s a little weird, for the lack of a better word to have him talk about not being allowed backstage. 

The ‘Conor Mcgregor’ coach had to leave UFC 279 without his shoes

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On the 11th of September, 2022, Johnny Walker had just defeated Ion Cutelaba with a first-round rear-necked choke. The up-and-coming Brazilian fighter was celebrating as anyone in his position would. Barring, something else happened that dampened his day of glory. 

The UFC apparently got hold of them. Not just Walker, but Kavanaugh and their whole team were told to leave the arena as soon as their fight was over. Kavanaugh even took to Twitter to express his surprise; shock to to be fair, after being thrown out of the arena with the rest of his team. 

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Kavanaugh was seen laughing in the video he posted but it wasn’t much of a happy laugh but maybe a ‘what just happened’ laugh. And to be fair to him, he is who he is. It was his fighter who effectively put UFC on the map. Conor went on Kimmel and Conan O’Brien and Fallon and promoted UFC to a layman’s audience and it worked. So it’s a bit perplexing that his coach was shown the way out. Although he did talk about the reason UFC gave him before they showed him the door. 

What made UFC kick out John Kavanaugh off the back door?

They weren’t even allowed to put on their shoes. All that said, Kavanaugh did reply to a tweet saying they were told they had to leave due to security concerns. While Kavanaugh dealt with the situation as well as he could have, Walker, still in his fighting shorts, looked at the camera, and with a dry smile on his face said, he didn’t even have time to take his gloves off.

Meanwhile, this incident had even left the fans perplexed.

There were a few Conor Mcgregor jokes thrown in there as well.

Poor Johnny Walker though, had everyone’s sympathies.

The guy won a great fight and didn’t even have time to change before being asked to walk out.

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Regardless, it’s been more than a year since this incident. And given that no one was hurt during this whole scenario, we should consider this to be an absolute win. No egos were hurt, nobody was blamed and everyone seems to have moved on, which is not always the case with our beloved sport.

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What are your thoughts on this? Share with us in the comments below!

Watch this story: Michael Chandler Also Drops Major USADA Update After Conor McGregor

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Written by:

Smrutisnat Jena

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Smrutisnat Jena is a UFC editor at EssentiallySports. Smrutisnat’s expertise in the role is backed by almost 7 years of experience in both senior writer and editor roles across multiple organizations. Coming from a wrestling family, Smrutisnat has been following MMA since middle school, thanks to his uncles and cousins who followed the sport during the days of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.
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Edited by:

Joyita Das