McGregor Denies Laughing at Covington Submission Loss in Viral Clip: Says Laughing Footage Was Edited Out of Place
After a Hype Fighting grappling card at the PalaPellicone in Rome, Italy, on the night of November 3, a clip showing Irish fighting star Conor McGregor laughing at ringside went viral on social media, with many reposts framing it as McGregor mocking Colby Covington's submission loss. On November 4, McGregor denied that reading in a post on his own X account, calling the clip "false and fully edited" and saying his laughter came at a different moment of the evening and was edited into the moment Covington lost.
The main event was scheduled as a 10-minute, submission-only grappling match between former interim UFC welterweight champion Covington and Dillon Danis. Danis withdrew days before the event, and 22-year-old UFC bantamweight Raul Rosas Jr, who had volunteered at the press conference, stepped in. According to Sportskeeda, Bloody Elbow and other outlets, Rosas scored an early takedown, took Covington's back and finished him with a rear-naked choke in under a minute: Hype Fighting's official result post put the finish at 40 seconds, while MMA Fighting timed it at 43 seconds.
The broadcast cut to McGregor, a special guest seated at ringside, laughing, and the moment spread quickly on X and other platforms, with accounts such as Spinnin Backfist captioning it as McGregor "dying laughing." Hours later McGregor responded in full: "This is false and fully edited. I had an amazing and fun time at the show in Rome tonight, as is evident in the clip of myself laughing, however it's placement as if it was at this moment of the show is FALSE. I do not laugh at competing men and women. I respect them! Win lose draw! Bravo to all the combatants and thank you!"
McGregor's account is, for now, his side alone. In reporting his denial, MMA Sucka also noted that the event was broadcast live by DAZN, making it extremely unlikely that a pre-recorded laughing clip was inserted into the live broadcast, and neither DAZN nor the promoter Hype Fighting had publicly addressed the clip's timing as of publication. Covington, in his post-match interview, spoke only about starting slowly and having focused mainly on wrestling rather than jiu-jitsu in recent years, and did not comment on the McGregor clip.
Source: Conor McGregor's post on X
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Conor McGregor本人资料图（Andrius Petrucenia摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经Wikimedia Commons；非罗马现场图）
