Former Sunderland star Michael Gray says he can have a ‘laugh and a joke’ about his infamous nightclub fight with Wayne Rooney – but ruled out stepping into the ring against him for a charity boxing match.
The pair were on separate nights out at Manchester’s celebrity hotspot Panacea bar in September 2006 when Gray made disparaging comments about the women Rooney was with.
Gray alleges he asked Rooney ‘which one are you having tonight’ without realising his now-wife Coleen was sitting with him, while witnesses told UK newspapers at the time that Gray asked the ex-Man United man to have a threesome.
Regardless, Rooney took umbrage with Gray’s remarks and hit him in the face so hard that he had to wear sunglasses in the following days to avoid paparazzi from seeing his black eye.
Now, almost 20 years on, Gray has revealed he is happy for Rooney to have ‘one-up’ on him without reigniting their feud in the boxing ring.
‘I think I’ll leave it at Wayne being one-up,’ the former England defender told Daily Mail Sport via Uudet Kasinot. ‘I’m not that type of person who I think would climb through the ropes to have a white-collar fight, if that’s what they’re called these days.
Michael Gray says he can have a ‘laugh’ about his infamous nightclub fight with Wayne Rooney
Rooney punched Gray after he made disparaging comments about the women he was with
‘But no, it was just one of those moments that you look back on and I can have a laugh and a joke about it now.
‘It’s something that plenty of people ask me about, but what do you put it down to? A mistake at the time, but we’ve been fine since, so I’m over it.’
Rooney’s spokesman at the time alleged that Gray, who played with Blackburn Rovers when the incident occurred, had caused offence to Coleen and the other women at their table.
‘Wayne and Coleen were enjoying a night out with three other couples and were having a quiet dinner when Michael came up to their table uninvited,’ the spokesman claimed.
‘Michael then began making remarks which were offensive to Coleen and Wayne’s other female guests.
‘Several times, Wayne asked Michael to leave. It was a brief incident and as far as Wayne is concerned, he bears no ill feeling towards Michael.’
Gray made his Rovers boss Mark Hughes aware of what had happened at the time, and today maintains the story has grown arms and legs.
Speaking on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast with Sam Allardyce and Natalie Pike last year, Gray said: ‘Everybody just blows the story up as it goes on. We were at Blackburn and Man United came into the nightclub.
Gray played with Blackburn Rovers at the time of the fight in Manchester’s Panacea bar
‘Wayne Rooney was there, three or four of the players; myself Gary Flitcroft, Stephen Reid.
‘So I was in there and we had the booths, one with Blackburn lads here and Man United lads there. We were young at the time and we were enjoying ourselves. Lots of girls around.
‘I saw the Man United players and I leant over all the girls and, I’ll keep this clean, I just said, “alright Wayne, which one are you having tonight?” because (that was) just normal conversation that we’d have, not knowing that Coleen was one of the girls that were in the crowd next to him.
‘So he didn’t really like that, and I got one in the eye and that was pretty much it to be honest with you. But then it came out, “Gray asks Rooney and Coleen for a threesome and everything”. It was a load of rubbish.’
