Conor McGregor accused of attacking woman on his yacht, prompting her to jump off boat to escape

A woman has accused UFC fighter Conor McGregor of assaulting her on his yacht in Ibiza, prompting her to flee the boat by jumping into the water.

Spanish publication Ultima Hora reports that an Irish woman has filed a formal complaint against McGregor for the alleged assault from July 17 of last year. Per the complaint, McGregor allegedly punched the woman in the face and kicked her, knocking her to the ground and ultimately causing injury to her wrist. 

McGregor's representative Karen Kessler denied the claims in a statement to ESPN on Tuesday.

"Mr. McGregor is steadfast in his denial of all the accusations made by a guest on his boat," Kessler's statement reads.

Per the complaint, McGregor's accuser and some friends joined McGregor at his birthday party at an Ibiza nightclub on the night of July 16. The woman says that she's from the same neighborhood as McGregor and knew him before he was a UFC star. Per the complaint, she joined McGregor on his yacht with his partner and two other friends at McGregor's invitation overnight sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. 

The accuser says that McGregor's partner went to bed and that the rest of the party remained on deck drinking and talking. Per the complaint, that's when the situation escalated. From Ultima Hora:

"His whole behavior changed and he became very aggressive," she says. Without further provocation, according to this account, he kicked her with the instep just below her navel and punched her in the chin. The first blow caused her to fall to the ground and hurt her wrist. 

Then he jumped on her: "I'm going to drown you, who do you think you are?"

The woman says she escaped, then jumped from the yacht to flee the attack and was eventually picked up by a Red Cross boat. Per the report, she initially told her rescuers that McGregor was her attacker, and that lifeguards saw McGregor on the boat and identified him. 

“It was as if he were possessed," she said, per Ultima Hora. "I knew I had to get out of the boat because I thought he was going to kill me."

When she later met with authorities, she told them that it wasn't McGregor who attacked her and she didn't file a formal complaint at the time. Per the report, she said that she was in shock and only wearing a bikini while she spoke with authorities and that she prioritized leaving and going her hotel to make plans to return home to Ireland. 

According to the report, she filed a formal complaint naming McGregor after she returned to Dublin. Authorities in Ibiza have since reopened a criminal investigation into the allegations based on her complaint. McGregor has not been formally charged as authorities continue to take statements from witnesses and McGregor's accuser.

McGregor was previously accused of sexual assault in Corsica, France, in 2020. McGregor denied those allegations, and authorities declined to pursue the case, citing insufficient evidence. In 2019, McGregor was caught on video punching a man in a Dublin bar and was later charged with assault. He was fined $1,120 for that incident.