Conor McGregor has apologised for his controversial use of a homophobic slur

"I meant no disrespect to nobody of the LGBT community."

Conor McGregor has publicly apologised for using the word “faggot” in conversation with UFC fighter Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 118 in Gdansk earlier this month. McGregor was caught on camera repeatedly using the word "faggot" in conversation with his long-time training partner Lobov and, a little over a week later, he has publicly apologised in an interview with Irish TV show The Late Late Show, which was conducted on Tuesday and will be broadcast on Friday night. "I have to put my hands up there," McGregor said.

"I was watching a fighter, a sparring partner, a training partner, a friend, a brother of mine who has given his health, his body health, his brain health, everything to help me prepare for fights to give my brain health and my body health to entertain the public. That’s the fighter I was going to watch and support. I witnessed him lose a fight, and a potential career-ending fight, in a manner where the opponent was stalling and running away and I was upset.

"I was whispering in his ear and I was speaking on that and I said what I said," McGregor added.

"I meant no disrespect to nobody of the LGBT community. I didn’t mean no disrespect. You’d swear I was screaming at two people of the same sex kissing. I campaigned, when we were trying to get same sex marriage legalised, I was campaigning for that. It is another one where things just get blown out and they love to just, any chance they get they love to throw me under the bus. It is what it is. I’ll just say sorry for what I said and that’s it and try to move on from it."

You can watch a clip from the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WoAdkuX_nw&feature=youtu.be Clip via The Late Late Show