Conor McGregor was an unlikely guest on the floor of Tuesday’s BYU-Baylor men’s basketball game in Provo, Utah, where the former UFC champion was apparently embraced by the Cougar faithful.
‘Not the BYU you thought you knew,’ one fan wrote on X amid widespread confusion over McGregor’s presence at the famously pious school.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young founded his eponymous college in 1875 and since then students have been adhering to an honor code that famously forbids sexual relations outside marriage, drugs, alcohol, caffeine and vulgar language.
There are even dressing and grooming standards that could conflict with McGregor’s famously tight clothes and patchy beard.
McGregor, on the other hand, has been ordered to pay $257,000 to the woman who accused him of raping her in 2018 on a night when he was admittedly using cocaine. Furthermore, McGregor and the NBA‘s Miami Heat are currently facing a federal lawsuit over claims the MMA legend sexually assaulted a woman in a bathroom at the Kaseya Center while security stood guard outside the stall.
But while McGregor has maintained his innocence in these cases, and BYU campus guests aren’t subject to the honor code, basketball fans were nonetheless stunned to see him on the floor at the J. Willard Marriott Center.
![Conor McGregor mugs for a photo with a fan during the second half on Tuesday in Provo](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/29/15/94642209-14338265-image-a-30_1738165412800.jpg)
Conor McGregor mugs for a photo with a fan during the second half on Tuesday in Provo
![McGregor acknowledges the fans during the first half between BYU and Baylor on Tuesday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/29/15/94642219-14338265-image-a-31_1738165446142.jpg)
McGregor acknowledges the fans during the first half between BYU and Baylor on Tuesday
![McGregor poses for photos with head coach Kalani Sitake of the Brigham Young football team](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/29/15/94642203-14338265-image-a-32_1738165453786.jpg)
McGregor poses for photos with head coach Kalani Sitake of the Brigham Young football team
‘I didn’t think I was gonna come across this today,’ one person responded on X.
‘Conor McGregor leading the BYU student section in a chant is perhaps the most unexpected sports crossover of the year,’ another added.
One fan couldn’t help but consider McGregor as a BYU student: ‘Good lawd that man could never get admitted with the honor code they got!’
And McGregor wasn’t there to sit quietly as the hometown Cougars defeated the visiting Bears, 93-89, with a 15-point performance from Russian NBA hopeful Egor Demin. The Notorious MMA, as he’s known on social media, actually pumped up the Cougar crowd with chants of ‘B-Y-U.’
Some on social media referenced the rape allegation, but mostly fans just offered their genuine surprise.
‘This is definitely the weirdest timeline,’ one fan wrote on X. ‘I didn’t have this on my 2025 bingo card. What is happening?’
This was McGregor’s second basketball game in as many nights. On Monday in Salt Lake City he was seen on the Bucks’ sideline trying to measure himself up against 7-foot-1 center Brook Lopez.
After the bizarre interaction highlighted the height difference between athletes, Lopez spoke about it postgame.
‘He asked me how tall I was,’ said Lopez. ‘I let him know. He asked me to stand up, and I did. And I knew at that point once I got up I had to size him up.
‘You know, I had to do a little something,’ he added. ‘I’ve seen the face-offs before so I had to do my part.’
![McGregor was sitting courtside at Delta Center in Salt Lake City for the Jazz-Bucks showdown](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/29/15/94602441-14338265-McGregor_was_sitting_courtside_at_Delta_Center_in_Salt_Lake_City-a-33_1738165470485.jpg)
McGregor was sitting courtside at Delta Center in Salt Lake City for the Jazz-Bucks showdown
Both Monday and Tuesday’s basketball games were far less eventful than McGregor’s visit to the NBA Finals in Miami back in June of 2023.
Not only is he accused of sexually assaulting a woman at that game, but in a misguided on-court bit, McGregor struck the team mascot, Burnie, sending the costumed performer tumbling down to the hardwood earlier in the evening. A second punch sent the mascot kicking his feet and rolling in apparent agony.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra later confirmed that the person portraying the mascot was taken to the hospital, but assured reporters Burnie didn’t suffer any permanent injuries.
‘We won’t reveal who that is, but yeah, he can take a punch and get back up,’ Spoelstra said at the time. ‘He’s not going to miss any time.’
McGregor has since portrayed the incident as a ‘skit’ gone awry.
‘The mascot’s good, my man,’ he told Adam Glyn in June of 2023. ‘The Mascot is good. It was a skit, and it went the way it went, but all is well.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .