MMA star McGregor charged with assault

29-year-old and his entourage attacked a van containing other fighters

NEW YORK: Conor McGregor has been charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief following a rampage at a UFC press event in Brooklyn on Thursday, the New York Police Department has said.

The 29-year-old, who became the first UFC fighter to hold two world titles simultaneously when he beat Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight belt in Manhattan in 2016, turned himself in to police on Thursday evening after the violent incident.

"He's been charged with assault, three counts of assault, and one count of criminal mischief," Thomas Antonetti of the NYPD told Reuters. "He's still in custody, still at the police precinct until he's removed to court this morning."

As the UFC held a media day on Thursday ahead of the upcoming fight card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday, McGregor and his entourage entered through a side entrance and attacked a van containing other fighters.

Video of the fracas circulated on social media showed objects being thrown at the van, and a number of people were injured by glass fragments as windows were smashed. McGregor, who previously told Reuters that he made an eye-watering $140 million from his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather last August, has not fought in the Octagon since the win over Alvarez in November 2016.

UFC president Dana White has said that the van attack was "the most disgusting thing that ever happened in the history" of the UFC.