{"id":5814,"date":"2026-06-17T10:22:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/conor-mcgregor-stands-up-stephen-a-smith-ditches-espn-appearance\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T10:22:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T10:22:04","slug":"conor-mcgregor-stands-up-stephen-a-smith-ditches-espn-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/conor-mcgregor-stands-up-stephen-a-smith-ditches-espn-appearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor stands up Stephen A. Smith, ditches ESPN appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F06%2F131199335-1.jpg?quality%3D80%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Maybe he didn\u2019t hear the bell ring?<\/p>\n<p>The two-time UFC champion \u2014 who has been doing the rounds to promote his comeback fight in July after five years outside of the ring \u2014 was booked on Smith\u2019s ESPN morning show \u201cFirst Take,\u201d we\u2019re told.<br \/>But the Irishman was a no-show at the network\u2019s Hudson Square studios, according to sources familiar with the debacle.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Conro McGregor was expected at ESPN in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning. <span class=\"credit\">Sportsfile via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When we contacted the fighter\u2019s team, they offered no explanation for him ghosting Smith.<\/p>\n<p>The tale has something of a familiar ring to it. In 2023,<a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2023\/06\/16\/conor-mcgregor-was-a-no-show-on-gma-before-allegations\/\"> we reported that<\/a> he ditched another Disney-owned show, ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America\u201d \u2014 though, in that case, the reason was more clear.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>McGregor had been booked for at least a week to appear on the show but, we reported at the time, his camp made an early-hours call to producers to say he wasn\u2019t going to make it.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>The fighter was supposed to appear on Stephen A. Smith\u2019s \u201cFirst Take\u201d show. <span class=\"credit\">ESPN<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A few hours later, TMZ reported that an unnamed woman had accused McGregor of sexually assaulting her at Game 4 of that year\u2019s NBA Finals. He denied the allegations and the charges were later dropped.<\/p>\n<p>McGregor, who has had 22 wins and six losses in his career, is set to return to the UFC Octagon next month in Las Vegas. He\u2019ll fight Max Holloway in \u201ca rematch 13 years in the making,\u201d Sports Illustrated wrote, after McGregor beat him in a 2013 bout.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>But McGregor was a no-show for the appearance. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>McGregor also announced in this round of media appearances (the ones he made it to) that he will follow up the Holloway fight with another in July 2027, against an as-yet-unnamed opponent.<\/p>\n<p>Reps for ESPN didn\u2019t comment and a rep for McGregor didn\u2019t get back to us.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/06\/17\/celebrity-news\/conor-mcgregor-stands-up-stephen-a-smith-ditches-espn-appearance\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe he didn\u2019t hear the bell ring? The two-time UFC champion \u2014 who has been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/131199335-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}