It’s not been a great few years for the Notorious one. After suffering two devastating UFC losses – one which resulted in his leg literally snapping in half – Conor McGregor had been prolonging, and ultimately betraying, a UFC return against Michael Chandler. But his latest L came not in the cage, but the courtroom.
After recently going on trial in Dublin, Ireland, Conor McGregor was found guilty of sexual assault in late November 2024, and his ailing star power took the biggest plummet of his career. A recent study conducted by Finbold research found that Conor lost an average of 14,269 Instagram followers per day over an 11-day period after the court ruling ended on December 2, 2024. The total drop as of now was 160,918. But the Instagram plummet is the least of his worries
Proper No. 12, McGregor’s Irish whisky brand which he launched in 2018 and sold for $600 million (AED 2.2 billion), just dropped its founder, and has stated it will no longer use his likeness for any of their marketing or products. IO Interactive, the videogame studio behind the wildly popular ‘Hitman’ videogame series, has also severed ties with the athlete as the latest Hitman installment game features McGregor.
But one could argue that spiritual support is much more important than financial, and if so, just take a look at the video below, a recurring theme seen across social media where people had formerly supported McGregor.
Determined to appeal the decision, McGregor took to X to write: “As much as I regret it, everything that happened that night was consensual and all the witnesses present swore to that under oath. I have instructed my legal team to appeal the decision.”
The now 36 year old McGregor remains the biggest pay-per-view draw in the history of MMA, and has headlined the five highest selling UFC events of all time on pay-per-view. He recently starred alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2024 Roadhouse remake, which was Amazon Studios’s most-watched produced film debut on a worldwide basis, so his achievements are truly quite staggering.
If you follow any UFC/boxing related Instagram account, you’ll have seen the skeptical comments over the last year all claiming that Conor will never fight again, especially considering the very questionable NSFW videos he’s been posting, which make him appear anything but competition ready.
Perhaps this legal battle and destruction of public image will be the spark he needs to return to the cage, but sadly, the only fight I see Conor doing now is one against Jake Paul.