Actress Christina Ricci took to Instagram on Monday to publicly disgrace Tonight Present host Jimmy Fallon for reserving Conor McGregor on his NBC speak present, drawing contemporary consideration to the fighter’s civil rape conviction simply weeks earlier than his scheduled UFC comeback.
McGregor, 37, appeared on The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 16 alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Matty Matheson, and Arlo Parks. The interview was a part of a press push forward of his return to the UFC octagon, the place he’s set to face Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11 in Las Vegas.
Conor McGregor and Jimmy Fallon Face Backlash
Fallon stored the dialog mild, reminiscing a few earlier evening out with the fighter and telling him, “You’re thought-about among the best MMA fighters on the planet,” at one level calling McGregor “my man.” McGregor advised the viewers he was “excited” and “able to rock” after 5 years away from competitors, including: “You must be calm; you need to be composed. You must belief your coaching and your self-discipline. There’s no hiding within the Octagon.”
The nice and cozy reception didn’t sit properly with many viewers.
Inside hours of clips spreading on-line, Fallon’s feedback part full of criticism. On YouTube, one viewer wrote: “A lady has been defiled after which publicly humiliated. I by no means need to hear that accusations of sexual assault spoil males’s lives. He was actually convicted.” One other wrote: “Is that this a joke?? The person is convicted of RAPE in Eire, and also you’re internet hosting him in your present and giving him a platform?!?” On X, customers known as the reserving “disgusting,” “completely vile,” and “pathetic,” with a number of pointing to the truth that Fallon shares two daughters together with his spouse, producer Nancy Juvonen.
Ricci added her voice to the pile-on by sharing an Instagram put up on Monday. Her message learn: “Disgrace on you Jimmy for platforming this human rubbish. We have to cease pretending like rape is OK.” In the identical put up, she referenced testimony from the civil trial, noting the extent of Nikita Hand’s accidents and the surgical process required to take away a tampon that had been pushed inside Hand through the assault. Screenshots of Ricci’s put up unfold rapidly, bringing the story past sports activities audiences into mainstream leisure coverage.
Fallon has not commented publicly on the backlash, and as of publication his staff had not responded to requests for a press release. Some followers famous that promotional clips from the McGregor interview have been absent from Fallon’s social media channels, which generally push movie star segments closely. One commenter on Instagram wrote, “Don’t need to put up McGregor @jimmyfallon? Why not?” and one other urged the silence was “nearly like… it shouldn’t have occurred.” There isn’t any proof Fallon or NBC intentionally withheld the footage, however the perceived hole in promotion fed the talk additional.
The Civil Case
The anger over the interview can’t be separated from what occurred in a Dublin courtroom in November 2024. A civil jury on the Excessive Court docket discovered McGregor liable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand on the Beacon Resort on December 9, 2018, after a piece Christmas get together. Hand was awarded €248,603 in damages. Medical testimony at trial was graphic: a paramedic advised the courtroom she had not seen somebody “so bruised” in a very long time. Dr. Daniel Kane, a marketing consultant gynaecologist and forensic examiner, testified that Hand was “shaking and crying” throughout his examination, and detailed bruising throughout her face, arms, fingers, legs, decrease again, and buttocks, in addition to a 9cm scratch on her left breast. After the decision, Hand mentioned she felt “justice has been served” and urged different survivors to not keep silent.
McGregor denied wrongdoing all through, claiming the encounter was consensual. When initially questioned by police, he responded “no remark” roughly 100 occasions. After the decision he posted on X that “every thing that occurred that evening was consensual,” acknowledged making private errors, and confirmed he would enchantment.
That enchantment went nowhere. In July 2025, three judges at Eire’s Court docket of Attraction dismissed each one among McGregor’s 5 grounds for enchantment, with Justice Brian O’Moore declaring the dismissal “in its entirety.” In December 2025, the Supreme Court docket of Eire additionally turned down his bid for an extra enchantment, discovering that whereas the trial choose had made a procedural error, McGregor had nonetheless obtained a good trial. Hand later mentioned the appeals course of “retraumatised” her repeatedly.
Separate Allegations
The Dublin case was not an remoted authorized matter. In 2023, a girl accused McGregor of sexually assaulting her in a males’s restroom on the Kaseya Middle in Miami throughout Recreation 4 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Warmth and the Denver Nuggets. The Florida State Lawyer’s Workplace investigated and declined to pursue felony fees, citing inadequate proof. The girl filed a civil lawsuit in January 2025, however in December 2025 she voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice, that means she can’t refile it. McGregor denied these allegations as properly.
In the identical yr, a separate girl filed a grievance with police alleging McGregor had sexually abused her in a automobile exterior a Dublin bar. No fees have been brought. That allegation has obtained significantly much less press protection than the Hand case.
In one other case, Samantha Murphy, a 40-year-old Irish girl, alleged McGregor attacked her throughout his thirty fourth birthday celebration on his yacht off the coast of Ibiza, Spain, on July 2022. Murphy mentioned McGregor verbally insulted her look, then kicked her within the abdomen and punched her within the chin with out provocation, knocking her down and injuring her wrist. She claimed he then jumped on high of her and threatened to drown her, telling her: “I’m going to drown you, who do you assume you might be?” She mentioned she had no selection however to leap off the yacht to flee.
She initially declined to call McGregor on to police in Ibiza on the evening itself, however filed a proper grievance with Gardaí again residence in Dublin days later, which triggered an investigation in Spain. Then, whereas the civil case was energetic, Murphy was focused at her residence. In January 2023, a brick was thrown by means of her window, and on the evening of January 19, 2023, arsonists set hearth to her car exterior her residence. In February 2023, Murphy dropped the civil lawsuit with out rationalization.
McGregor’s authorized report stretches properly past the sexual assault instances. In April 2018, he stormed the Barclays Middle loading bay in Brooklyn with a gaggle of associates and hurled a metallic hand trolley by means of the window of a bus carrying rival UFC fighters forward of UFC 223, injuring two folks with damaged glass. He was charged with three counts of assault and one depend of felony mischief. Lower than a yr later, in March 2019, he was arrested in Miami Seashore after stomping on a fan’s telephone exterior the Fontainebleau Resort. Again in Dublin, he additionally pleaded responsible in 2019 to assaulting a person on the Marble Arch pub after the person refused a shot of McGregor’s personal Correct No. Twelve whiskey.
Regardless of all of it, McGregor’s UFC comeback is continuing as scheduled. He faces Max Holloway, his second-ever UFC opponent, at UFC 329 on July 11 on the T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas, with the cardboard streaming on Paramount+. The struggle is booked at welterweight and marks the Irish-born fighter’s first aggressive bout since he broke his leg within the trilogy struggle in opposition to Dustin Poirier in July 2021.
The Fallon look was clearly designed to rebuild a few of that promotional momentum. Whether or not it labored as supposed is one other query. The backlash turned what was meant to be a victory lap into yet one more information cycle dominated by the rape verdict, and it launched the talk to audiences who had little curiosity within the struggle itself.
