Actress Christina Ricci took to Instagram on Monday to publicly shame Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon for booking Conor McGregor on his NBC talk show, drawing fresh attention to the fighter’s civil rape conviction just weeks before his scheduled UFC comeback.
McGregor, 37, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on June 16 alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Matty Matheson, and Arlo Parks. The interview was part of a press push ahead of his return to the UFC octagon, where he is set to face Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11 in Las Vegas.
Conor McGregor and Jimmy Fallon Face Backlash
Fallon kept the conversation light, reminiscing about a previous night out with the fighter and telling him, “You’re considered one of the best MMA fighters in the world,” at one point calling McGregor “my man.” McGregor told the audience he was “excited” and “ready to rock” after five years away from competition, adding: “You have to be calm; you have to be composed. You have to trust your training and your discipline. There’s no hiding in the Octagon.”
The warm reception did not sit well with many viewers.
Within hours of clips spreading online, Fallon’s comments section filled with criticism. On YouTube, one viewer wrote: “A woman has been defiled and then publicly humiliated. I never want to hear that accusations of sexual assault ruin men’s lives. He was literally convicted.” Another wrote: “Is this a joke?? The man is convicted of RAPE in Ireland, and you’re hosting him on your show and giving him a platform?!?” On X, users called the booking “disgusting,” “absolutely vile,” and “pathetic,” with several pointing to the fact that Fallon shares two daughters with his wife, producer Nancy Juvonen.
Ricci added her voice to the pile-on by sharing an Instagram post on Monday. Her message read: “Shame on you Jimmy for platforming this human garbage. We need to stop pretending like rape is OK.” In the same post, she referenced testimony from the civil trial, noting the extent of Nikita Hand’s injuries and the surgical procedure required to remove a tampon that had been pushed inside Hand during the assault. Screenshots of Ricci’s post spread quickly, bringing the story beyond sports audiences into mainstream entertainment coverage.
Fallon has not commented publicly on the backlash, and as of publication his team had not responded to requests for a statement. Some fans noted that promotional clips from the McGregor interview were absent from Fallon’s social media channels, which typically push celebrity segments heavily. One commenter on Instagram wrote, “Don’t want to post McGregor @jimmyfallon? Why not?” and another suggested the silence was “almost like… it shouldn’t have happened.” There is no evidence Fallon or NBC deliberately withheld the footage, but the perceived gap in promotion fed the debate further.
The Civil Case
The anger over the interview cannot be separated from what happened in a Dublin courtroom in November 2024. A civil jury at the High Court found McGregor liable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand at the Beacon Hotel on December 9, 2018, after a work Christmas party. Hand was awarded €248,603 in damages. Medical testimony at trial was graphic: a paramedic told the court she had not seen someone “so bruised” in a long time. Dr. Daniel Kane, a consultant gynaecologist and forensic examiner, testified that Hand was “shaking and crying” during his examination, and detailed bruising across her face, arms, fingers, legs, lower back, and buttocks, as well as a 9cm scratch on her left breast. After the verdict, Hand said she felt “justice has been served” and urged other survivors not to stay silent.
McGregor denied wrongdoing throughout, claiming the encounter was consensual. When originally questioned by police, he responded “no comment” approximately 100 times. After the verdict he posted on X that “everything that happened that night was consensual,” acknowledged making personal mistakes, and confirmed he would appeal.
That appeal went nowhere. In July 2025, three judges at Ireland’s Court of Appeal dismissed every one of McGregor’s five grounds for appeal, with Justice Brian O’Moore declaring the dismissal “in its entirety.” In December 2025, the Supreme Court of Ireland also turned down his bid for a further appeal, finding that while the trial judge had made a procedural error, McGregor had still received a fair trial. Hand later said the appeals process “retraumatised” her repeatedly.
Separate Allegations
The Dublin case was not an isolated legal matter. In 2023, a woman accused McGregor of sexually assaulting her in a men’s restroom at the Kaseya Center in Miami during Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets. The Florida State Attorney’s Office investigated and declined to pursue criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence. The woman filed a civil lawsuit in January 2025, but in December 2025 she voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning she cannot refile it. McGregor denied those allegations as well.
In the same year, a separate woman filed a complaint with police alleging McGregor had sexually abused her in a car outside a Dublin bar. No charges were brought. That allegation has received considerably less press coverage than the Hand case.
In another case, Samantha Murphy, a 40-year-old Irish woman, alleged McGregor attacked her during his 34th birthday party on his yacht off the coast of Ibiza, Spain, on July 2022. Murphy said McGregor verbally insulted her appearance, then kicked her in the stomach and punched her in the chin without provocation, knocking her down and injuring her wrist. She claimed he then jumped on top of her and threatened to drown her, telling her: “I’m going to drown you, who do you think you are?” She said she had no choice but to jump off the yacht to escape.
She initially declined to name McGregor directly to police in Ibiza on the night itself, but filed a formal complaint with Gardaí back home in Dublin days later, which triggered an investigation in Spain. Then, while the civil case was active, Murphy was targeted at her home. In January 2023, a brick was thrown through her window, and on the night of January 19, 2023, arsonists set fire to her car outside her home. In February 2023, Murphy dropped the civil lawsuit without explanation.
McGregor’s legal record stretches well beyond the sexual assault cases. In April 2018, he stormed the Barclays Center loading bay in Brooklyn with a group of associates and hurled a metal hand trolley through the window of a bus carrying rival UFC fighters ahead of UFC 223, injuring two people with broken glass. He was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief. Less than a year later, in March 2019, he was arrested in Miami Beach after stomping on a fan’s phone outside the Fontainebleau Hotel. Back in Dublin, he also pleaded guilty in 2019 to assaulting a man at the Marble Arch pub after the man refused a shot of McGregor’s own Proper No. Twelve whiskey.
Despite all of it, McGregor’s UFC comeback is proceeding as scheduled. He faces Max Holloway, his second-ever UFC opponent, at UFC 329 on July 11 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the card streaming on Paramount+. The fight is booked at welterweight and marks the Irish-born fighter’s first competitive bout since he broke his leg in the trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier in July 2021.
The Fallon appearance was clearly designed to rebuild some of that promotional momentum. Whether it worked as intended is another question. The backlash turned what was meant to be a victory lap into yet another news cycle dominated by the rape verdict, and it introduced the debate to audiences who had little interest in the fight itself.
