Former mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor wants to introduce new evidence in his appeal against a civil jury's finding that he raped Nikita Hand, claiming that bruising on her body could have been caused by her former partner.
Ms Hand has described the allegations as lies. The application will be heard at the beginning of July.
Appeal court judge Mr Justice Seamus Noonan said the fresh evidence sought to be introduced by Mr McGregor came from neighbours of Ms Hand and her former partner Stephen Redmond.
The couple, Samantha O'Reilly and Steven Cummins, lived in a house directly across the road in Drimnagh.
Mr Justice Noonan said Ms O'Reilly was alleging that she had seen a row from her bedroom window between Ms Hand and her former partner on the night of 9 December 2018, into the early hours of 10 December 2018.
In her affidavit, Ms O'Reilly claims she was woken up by screaming and shouting.
She said there were no blinds or curtains on her own bedroom window, and she could see directly into a bedroom window in Ms Hand and Mr Redmond's house.
The wooden venetian blinds in Ms Hand's room were open and the light was on.
She claimed she could hear them shouting at each other and that Ms Hand was saying words to Mr Redmond "to the effect that it is always about you".
They were running in and out of the bedrooms and Ms Hand was pushing Mr Redmond, she said.
Ms O'Reilly described seeing Mr Redmond push Ms Hand and Ms Hand fell to the floor.
Ms O'Reilly said she could not actually see Ms Hand on the ground but said Mr Redmond's movements indicated that he was punching and kicking Ms Hand.
Mr Justice Noonan said the suggestion was that this explains the very serious bruising seen on Ms Hand's body in the morning when she was taken by ambulance to hospital.
In the High Court case, the judge said Mr McGregor claimed he did not inflict the bruising but was not in a position to offer a plausible alternative explanation.
In his affidavit, Ms O'Reilly's partner Mr Cummins said he was woken up on the same night by screaming and shouting from Ms Hand's and Mr Redmond's house.
He said it was obvious a row was going on and he did not want to get involved.
He said he told Ms O'Reilly it was none of their business and he said he was not even prepared to look over at what was happening.
The introduction of the fresh evidence is being challenged by Ms Hand's lawyers on the basis of its credibility. They are also querying why the witnesses did not come forward sooner.
The court heard Ms O'Reilly claims she was not aware Ms Hand had made any complaint about what she says happened to her on 9 December 2018.
She claims the first time she realised it had anything to do with the Conor McGregor case was when she saw reports of the case on television last year.
Ms O'Reilly said she realised it must have been the same night she saw Mr Redmond and Ms Hand fighting.
She felt it was important she bring it to Mr McGregor's attention, so she sent him an Instagram message and sent his sister, Erin, an email.
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Lawyers for Ms Hand pointed out that there was television publicity about the High Court case, which started in November last year, from the very beginning of the trial.
Senior Counsel, Ray Boland for Ms Hand, said she had sworn an affidavit in which she said the allegations are untrue and are lies.
The judge said an assessment of the credibility of the new evidence was going to involve a consideration of all the evidence heard in the High Court.
He also directed that both sides will be able to cross examine witnesses about the evidence they gave in the sworn affidavits.
He set a date of 1 July for the hearing of the application and the appeal. It is expected to take around two days.
