This MMA veteran has come to bat for the former UFC champ.

There has been a lot of people who have taken shots at former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor over his recent antics that put people in jeopardy.

It’s well known by now that McGregor and several members of his entourage decided it was a good idea to fly from Ireland to Brooklyn, New York, which is the site of the UFC 223 pay-per-view event on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

McGregor and his crew were let in by members of MacLife and they made their way down to where the buses were.

This is when everything went down as McGregor started throwing trash cans, chairs, barricades and other items at the buses. It was pure chaos, to say the least.

As a result of this incident, it led to three fights being pulled from the card as two fighters suffered injuries.

McGregor turned himself into the NYPD following his destruction late Thursday night. Authorities say he’s facing assault charges stemming the incident.

MMA Legend Bas Rutten has recently defended the former UFC champion from his actions.

“We are not in Conor McGregor’s shoes. You know? People can shout what they want, they have no clue what goes on,” Rutten said (transcript courtesy of Bloody Elbow. “I think once people realize that you have 50 million dollars – he gets mail all day long from people with sick babies and sick kids and my grandma and everybody wants him to give money and so on.”

“I mean, he doesn’t only have money, he is super famous on top of that. I know the stupid stuff I did when I was 28 – I didn’t do that, okay, but you know, he has a group around him and he was already angry going in because they wanted to strip him of the title and he’s angry and now the partner, his friends, start saying, ‘hey, maybe we should throw something against them’. Like, ‘yeah,’ everybody starts agreeing. Yeah, you get caught up in the whole moment and you start doing it.”

As for the reason that Rutten believes “The Notorious” should be given a pass is due to what he has done for the sport of MMA as a whole.

“That’s why I said when I was with Joe Rogan, I said, guys, we should give him a pass. And people online, they were like, is he crazy? I’m not saying that (you excuse everything),” Rutten explained. “I’m saying, yes, he’s going to have to pay for what he did, he goes to court, he has to do all that. I’m not saying that (he doesn’t do those things). Of course, he has to – and I said that on Joe Rogan as well – but give him a pass as a fan. Don’t kick the guy while he’s down. Don’t throw him under the bus. He did so much good for MMA. He just needs to find his way in this world.”

“I hope they just … give him a pass, don’t spit him out yet,” he added. “Let him see if he cleans up. I mean, you give Jon Jones a lot of passes. And me too, I love Jon Jones, I want to see him back. He’s such a talent that is gone and I want to see him fight. This could be a guy that could literally go undefeated his entire life. So yeah, I would love to see a guy like that back.”