It appears as if the man behind the Miami Heat’s mascot, Burnie, needed to be sent to the hospital Friday night after a mid-game showdown with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) superstar, Conor McGregor, went too far.
McGregor was in Miami to help promote his new pain relief spray during Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the hometown Heat and the Denver Nuggets. As part of his half-court pageantry, McGregor ended up delivery a knockout blow to the Heat mascot, known as Burnie. The mascot tumbled to the court as “Notorious” followed suit with another left hand. McGregor then proceeded to fake spray Burnie in the face.
This was clearly a scripted event that seemed to go down without a hitch. However, The Athletic released a report Saturday afternoon stating that Burnie was sent to the emergency room following his spat with McGregor. “Notorious” did hit the Heat mascot pretty clean, but nobody was expected to get hurt.
Does anyone remember when heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder did THIS to a Spanish mascot on ESPN?
According to the report, the main behind the Burnie costume was sent to a nearby hospital after being decked by McGregor twice. He was eventually given pain medication and released. There is no additional information at this time.
This is pretty wild. McGregor hasn’t fought since suffering a nasty leg injury in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier back in 2021 so this is the first time fight fans are seeing him in action. “Notorious” is usually pretty good at these type of promos, but his power clearly got the best of him.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
