Why did Machine Gun Kelly and Conor McGregor fight on the MTV VMAs red carpet?

13 September 2021, 18:38 | Updated: 14 September 2021, 00:32

The awards show bust up between the musician and the MMA fighter has gone viral, but what was the reason for it?

This weekend, the 2021 MTV VMAs hosted a star-studded ceremony on Sunday (12 September) at the Barclays Center, which saw Foo Fighters pick up the inaugural Global Icon Award.

Machine Gun Kelly and his actress girlfriend Megan Fox turned some heads, with the Transformers star donning a striking Mugler dress, but that wasn't the only thing on the red carpet which went viral.

UFC star Conor McGregor and Machine Gun Kelly appeared to get into a bit of a scuffle just ahead of the ceremony, causing fans to wonder what had led to the altercation.

So what was the beef between Machine Gun Kelly and Conor McGregor and how exactly did the fight start?

Find out what we know here.

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Why did Conor McGregor and Machine Gun Kelly fight on the MTV VMAs red carpet?

Although footage sees McGregor try to launch a punch at the rock-rapper, it's not confirmed exactly what occurred before. Both parties were reluctant to share exactly what happened, but one has definitely been doing more talking than the other.

As Huffington Post reports, McGregor told Entertainment Tonight that "absolutely nothing" happened and that he doesn't know anything about him.

“Absolutely nothing. I don’t know," he replied, when quizzed about the event by ET. "He showed up, and I don’t know. I don’t know the guy."

The 33-year-old MMA fighter added: "Nothing happened with me, I only fight real fighters, people that actually fight, you know what I mean.

"I certainly don’t fight little vanilla boy rappers. I don’t even know the guy. I don’t know anything about him, except that he’s with Megan Fox."

In a statement to Page Six after the altercation, a representative for McGregor doubled down on his comments and said: "Conor only fights fighters."

However, Machine Gun Kelly - whose real name is Colson Baker - completely refused to answer the question when asked the same thing by Variety. He then walked off, as Fox can be heard saying: "We're not allowed to say..." before she trails off behind him.

However, there are some rumours which suggest that Machine Gun Kelly refused to take a photo with the former UFC champion and pushed him back, which made him spill his drink. Others allege that MGK threw a bottle of water at him, but none of this has been confirmed.

Either way it didn't seem to spoil either of the stars' nights, and Conor McGregor went on to present the award for Artist Of The Year, while Machine Gun Kelly took home the gong for best Alternative Video for My Ex’s Best Friend.

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