Conor McGregor drops homophobic slur backstage at UFC event

Conor McGregor was caught on video dropping homophobic slurs in a conversation with teammate Artem Lobov on Saturday at the UFC event in Gdansk, Poland.

In videos posted to Twitter by both the UFC and its broadcast partner BT Sport, McGregor could be heard saying the word “f*ggot” multiple times to Lobov. The scene was captured following Lobov’s loss to Andre Fili on the prelims of the UFC card.

It was unclear exactly what McGregor, an Ireland native, was conveying to Lobov, but he unmistakably used the word “f*ggot” at least three times and it seemed to be in reference to Fili.

The videos were later deleted by the official accounts.

Requests for comment sent to the UFC and a rep for McGregor were not returned Saturday.

McGregor and his SBG Ireland team were vocally pro same-sex marriage being passed in Ireland two years ago. The popular fighter even tweeted a graphic encouraging people to vote yes in the country's referendum, using his star power to campaign for the cause.

"We all deserve equal rights," McGregor said at the time. "We're all human here at the end of the day -- regardless of color, gender, sexuality. Any of that. It's all meaningless. We all deserve the same rights. It just feels right to me."

McGregor, 29, is the biggest star in the history of the UFC and the promotion’s lightweight champion. He is coming off a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather that ranks among the top two best selling pay-per-view events of all time. When McGregor entered the arena Saturday in Gdansk to watch his teammate and longtime friend Lobov fight, the Polish crowd erupted, at one point chanting for him.

Last month, the UFC released a statement following heavyweight Fabricio Werdum’s usage of the Spanish word for “f*ggot” in a verbal altercation with fellow fighter Tony Ferguson at a media lunch in Los Angeles. Werdum, the UFC said, would be doing outreach in the LGBTQ community in Las Vegas. Werdum also apologized for repeated use of the word.

McGregor got into hot water over the summer, during the promotional tour for the fight with Mayweather when he made controversial racial remarks. McGregor took heat for telling Mayweather to “dance for me, boy.” He attempted to explain that away, in a joking fashion, by saying on stage during the Brooklyn tour stop that he couldn’t possibly be racist, because he was “black from the waist down.” He then did a gyrating dance that he said was for his “beautiful black female fans.”

Mayweather accused him of disrespecting black people afterward. McGregor took offense to that, admitting that his comments in Brooklyn came off wrong, but adamantly saying he was not a racist.