Conor McGregor, the former two-weight UFC champion, was invited to a Chicago Cubs game earlier this week, and his first pitch has caused a storm among critics and fans — well, anything but the playing field itself, it seems.
To fans’ surprise, the pitch didn’t go down very well, as viral footage has shown of it. One fan tweeted:
Conor McGregor is no longer allowed on a baseball diamond after this opening pitch
Even Dana White, the UFC president himself, insisted that after seeing McGregor’s poor attempt he would never throw the first pitch at a baseball game. However, taking into consideration McGregor’s broken tibia, which he suffered at UFC 624 back in July, White stated that McGregor’s “recovery timeline” is stunting his performance, as he has mentioned his uncertainty surrounding McGregor’s return to the UFC any time soon.
“This kid needs to heal up,” White said. “I don’t know how fast that leg is going to recovery. It’s basically going to be all about when can he start kicking again and, more importantly, when can he start taking kicks again. That will determine when he fights again.”
Though famed for the accuracy of his strikes and blows in the ring, McGregor seems to be gaining more recent coverage on a ‘lower effort’ front, as the viral video has now been compared to rapper 50 Cent’s pitch for the New York Mets in 2014. This further provoked the UFC star to speak out on Instagram, where he strove to defend his public image as much as possible — though it sort of just gets more unintelligible as it goes on.
He then said on the Jim Rome Show: “Let me start here: Do you know how many times I’ve been asked to throw a first-pitch somewhere? And I’ll never do it. Never. Just like all those guys who think they can fight, guys think they can throw a baseball to home plate. It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
In fact, this isn’t the first time McGregor has had a mini man tantrum following an embarrassing moment in the public eye. He also underwhelmed when he attempted to throw a football before an NFL game back in 2018, receiving comments that stated he looked like he was trying to throw a shot put, not a football.
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