IRISH MMA fighter Sinead Kavanagh has reportedly been arrested after allegedly attacking two Spanish police officers called to deal with a disturbance on a Ryanair plane from Gran Canaria to Dublin.
The 39-year-old is said to have been held on Monday evening and spent the night in a police cell before appearing in court earlier today.
Local media are reporting the two Civil Guard officers allegedly assaulted by Kavanagh are currently off sick because of the injuries they suffered.
The featherweight fighter, a friend of Conor McGregor, is said to have been released on bail pending an ongoing criminal probe after appearing in front of a judge in a closed court hearing this morning.
The incident Kavanagh was caught up in happened while the plane was waiting to take off, around 7.30pm on Monday.
One local newspaper, Atlantico Hoy, published footage of the incident in the plane aisle said to have involved Kavanagh.
A woman could be heard shouting in English in the video as she grappled with two police officers struggling to control her.
One of the uniformed Civil Guard officers appeared to be a woman.
Another newspaper, Canarias 7, said the pilot requested police presence after flight crew were unable to control Kavanagh’s “violent attitude.”
It said: “When the officers arrived she resisted aggressively and hit the officers several times, leaving them with several injuries which led to them having to take time off work.”
Kavanagh was reportedly taken to an airport cell after back-up was called and four police officers got into a patrol car with her.
Spanish national media were last night beginning to pick up on the story as well as local media in Gran Canaria.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard confirmed a woman had been arrested on Monday evening after police were called to remove two “troublesome” passengers from a plane that was about to take off from Gran Canaria’s international airport.
She said: “I’m not at liberty to confirm the identities of those passengers.
“What I can say is the pilot requested police presence because of two passengers who were causing problems on board a plane that was about to take off.
“Officers were going to identify them and take them off the plane because the pilot had decided they weren’t going to fly.
“One of those passengers resisted and got into a tussle with officers and ended up being arrested.
“She spent the night in a police cell and was taken to court this morning.”
Asked whether any officers had been assaulted and why she had been arrested, the police spokesperson said: “It was for disobedience towards a police officer. There was a tussle on board the plane but no assault as such.”
She described the other passenger as a woman despite conflicting local reports the second person hauled off the plane was a man, saying: “That person was identified for the purposes of a report that will be sent to the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency which is the competent organisation when it comes to deciding the size of a fine for breaching air safety.”
It was not immediately clear whether the woman arrested will be able to leave Gran Canaria as part of her bail conditions or has had to surrender her passport as part of a travel ban.
Kavanagh, who has more than 26,000 followers on Instagram where she admits in her online description of herself: “Fighting is in my blood”, has yet to make any official comment on her social media.
She became a five-time national boxing champion and competed alongside Katie Taylor on the Irish team that went to the World Championships in 2021.
After losing multiple fights she quit the sport and became an MMA fighter.
She was ranked No10 at Women’s Featherweight according to Fight Matrix from April 2021 to July 2021, and March 2022.
The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC), a police union with more than 30,000 affiliated members nationwide, published a video of the plane tussle on its official X account and identified Kavanagh as the woman arrested by posting footage of her fighting alongside it.
It said: “Two Civil Guards injured after containing a professional MMA fighter.”
Complaining about the lack of resources Civil Guards had to work with, the AUGC continued: “No taser in the airport, no vehicle with a partition between the front and back, the aggressor free and officers off work.
“And they say ours is not a high-risk profession.
“We’re are the only defence for citizens, and we are up against professionals who fight with their bare hands and WITHOUT RESOURCES.”
A local Barcelona branch of the AUGC replied by saying: “Attacked by an MMA professional without taser, vehicle without a proper partition or resources.
“We risk our lives every day and feel abandoned.
“Protected citizens, unprotected officers.”
The footage of the Ryanair plane incident posted by the Civil Guard association showed a male and female uniformed officer grappling with the arrested woman in front of shocked passengers at the front of the plane.
Another woman, thought to be the second passenger asked to leave the plane before being identified, tried to intervene at one point.
The other footage the AUGC posted right alongside the plane video, which appeared to leave little doubt about the identity of the woman arrested, showed Sinead Kavanagh battling it out with Belfast fighter Leah McCourt.
McGregor could be seen cheering Sinead on in the footage, thought to have been taken in February 2022 when she scored a unanimous decision victory over her opponent.
The UFC star was later seen congratulating the Irish athlete after she was declared the winner.
SunSport has approached Kavanagh for comment.