Bloody Money | Conor McGregor's Net Worth: Then & Now

His Early Life

Conor Antony McGregor was born to Tony and Margaret McGregor on the 14th of July, 1988, in Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland. He was raised in Crumlin, and he also schooled there. 

His primary education took place at the Gaelscoil Scoil Mológa, in Harold's Cross, while his secondary education at Gaelcholáiste Coláiste de hÍde in Tallaght. While in school, McGregor developed a passion for sports, like many boys across the world, particularly football. He was even good enough to play youth football for Lourdes Celtic Football Club.

As a young boy, McGregor had his fair share of bullies, and he got picked on while walking to and from school by kids who were either his age or older. Many of these bullies stuck to verbal taunting while others tried to get physical. These bouts with bullies encouraged McGregor to learn how to defend himself, and this is how he eventually found his way to his profession today.

So, at the age of 12, McGregor started to learn how to box when he joined the Crumlin Boxing Club, where he ended up winning a few novice titles, including the Dublin Novice Championship at the age of 16. In 2006, McGregor and his family moved to Lucan, Dublin, where he commenced a plumbing apprenticeship which unsurprisingly didn't take. 

Conor soon found another sport he would become passionate about, mixed martial arts (MMA), so while in Lucan, he met UFC fighter, Tom Egan. The duo soon became fast friends and since they had a shared interest in MMA started training mixed martial arts (MMA) together.

His Career

In 2007, Conor started his journey into the MMA profession when he debuted in his first Mixed Martial arts amateur fight for the 'Irish Ring of Truth' in Dublin. During this fight, McGregor emerged victorious with a technical knockout (TKO) in the first round against Kieran Campbell, his opponent, achieving his first victory in MMA fights. 

Following this, McGregor turned professional and was signed by Irish Cage of Truth promotion, and in 2008, he began training under John Kavanagh at the Straight Blast Gym (SBS) in Dublin.

Professional MMA

On the 9th of March, 2008, McGregor made his first professional debut when he had a bout with Gary Morris in the lightweight division. McGregor emerged victorious in the fight, defeating Morris with a second-round TKO. Soon after this, he made his featherweight debut and suffered a loss via kneebar against Artemij Sitenkov. After a victory against Stephen Bailey in the featherweight division, McGregor contemplated switching to a different career and leaving MMA behind. 

However, thanks to his mother and coach, John Kavanagh, McGregor was soon reinvigorated, and his interest in MMA was rekindled. After this, he emerged victorious in several fights in the lightweight and featherweight divisions, during which he won both the CWFC Featherweight and Lightweight championship titles. This made him the first European Mixed Martial Artist to hold both titles in the two divisions simultaneously.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

In February 2013, McGregor signed a multi-fight contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). This contract made McGregor the second Irish fighter to fight for the company, following team member Tom Egan, who was also his long-time friend. McGregor made his UFC debut on the 6th of April 2013 in a fight against Marcus Brimage at UFC on Fuel TV: Mousasi vs. Latifi. 

In the first round, he won the fight by knockout, winning him his first "Knockout of the Night" Award. In August 2013, McGregor, who was supposed to face Andy Ogle, fought against Max Holloway due to Ogle's injury. During this bout against Holloway, McGregor won by unanimous decision and unfortunately sustained injury due to a torn ligament, which kept him out of the action for up to ten months. 

After his recovery, McGregor returned to action in July 2014, winning a bout against Diego Brandão and also winning the "Performance of the Night" award for the first time. Interestingly, his next four fights ended in victory. He won the "Performance of the Night" award on all four while also winning the interim UFC Featherweight Championship against Chad Mendes and winning and unifying the UFC Featherweight Championship in his bout against Jose Aldo.

McGregor had his first UFC loss when he made his debut in the welterweight division against the Ultimate Fighter Season 5 winner and the former UFC Lightweight Championship challenger Nate Diaz on the 5th of March 2016. A few months later, a rematch took place on the 20th of August 2016, and McGregor won the rematch via majority decision. In November 2016, McGregor fought against Eddie Alvarez and won the UFC Lightweight Championship, a title he would later lose due to his inactivity in the UFC. 

McGregor soon returned to the Octagon after his legendary fight against Mayweather to fight against the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC Lightweight Championship title. On the 26th of March 2019, McGregor announced his retirement on social media, but this did not last long as he later fought against Donald Cerrone in a fight that he won. He also had two rematches against Dustin Poirier, both of which unfortunately ended in defeat.

His Records to date

Mixed martial arts record

• Total fights - 28
• Wins - 22 (19 KO)
• Losses - 6

Professional boxing record

• Total - 1
• Wins - 0
• Losses - 1

Biggest Fights

Like most MMA fighters, McGregor the Notorious has had his fair share of fights. McGregor has made his mark in the entertainment industry from featherweight to welterweight with knockout wins, trash talks, good fights, and a couple of championship titles. McGregor has headlined some of the biggest fights in UFC history. But which of all his fights have been the biggest and the most impressive? 

Let us look at McGregor's top three biggest fights based on the PPV Buys of the matches.

UFC 264 Poirier vs. McGregor (1,800,000 PPV Buys)

This match is the third fight in the lightweight trilogy between the former interim UFC Lightweight Champion Dustin Poirier and the former UFC Featherweight and Lightweight Champion, Conor McGregor. Their first fight happened in September 2014 at the UFC 178. During this fight, McGregor emerged victorious by first-round technical knockout (TKO), earning the performance of the night award. 

An eventual rematch followed this in January 2021 at UFC 257, where Poirier won by a second-round knockout. The one win and one loss that both fighters had in the previous matches led to a lot of hype about the UFC 264 Poirier vs. McGregor match, bringing in 1,800,000 PPV Buys. Unfortunately for McGregor, he also lost this third bout against Poirier by another TKO.

UFC 229 Bad Blood: Khabib vs. McGregor (2,400,000 PPV Buys)

After two years away from the Octagon, McGregor returned to the UFC to fight against the undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC Lightweight Championship title. Before this fight, there had been some bad blood between the two, which led to many heated exchanges, trash talks, and hype towards the match.

This fight was believed to have the potential to beat the PPV sales of McGregor’s fight against the undefeated boxing champion, Money Mayweather. However, that didn't happen as it only had 2,400,000 PPV Buys, which is about 2 million short of that fight. 

Though the outcome wasn't in his favour, McGregor managed to make another history at UFC 229, making this fight the most successful UFC match when considering PPV sales.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor (4,300,000 PPV Buys)

Interestingly, Conor McGregor's biggest fights of all time did not happen in the Octagon. Instead, it happened when he participated in a professional boxing match against the eleven-time five-division boxing world champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr. The fight, which took place at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, on the 26th of August, 2017, recorded the second-highest pay-per-view buy rate in history with 4,300,000 PPV Buys in Showtime US and another 1,007,000 PPV Buys in Sky Box Office (UK).

This was one of the biggest fights of all time in boxing history. The fact that McGregor, an MMA fighter, made millions of people around the world think that he could win against the best boxer of this generation in a boxing match made the fight one of the most anticipated matches in the entertainment industry. Surprisingly, in his debut into professional boxing, McGregor put up a valiant fight against Mayweather, who is one of the greatest boxers of all time. 

However, his efforts weren't enough as Mayweather ripped through him in the later rounds and won the fight in the 10th round by TKO. Going into the fight, McGregor was promised a $30 million paycheck. Still, after the fight, McGregor managed to walk away with roughly around $100 million, the biggest paycheck he ever got for any fight.

Interesting Facts about McGregor

As one of the most popular MMA fighters today, McGregor is a public figure with millions of fans worldwide. As such, many things about this Irish fighter are public, and you could find many fans that can answer trivial questions about him. 

Here are some interesting facts that you should know about Conor McGregor:

He was a footballer first

McGregor has always had a knack for sports as a child. However, the sport that initially had his passion was neither mixed martial arts nor boxing. Instead, like many young boys across the world, his first passion was football. He was even good enough to play football for Lourdes Celtic Football Club, a youth football club in Crumlin. Even today, he remains a sponsor for the youth football club.

He was a victim of bullies.

Many may not know about Conor McGregor because he was a victim of bullies as a child. Seeing how aggressive McGregor is in the Octagon today, this may seem unimaginable, but it is the truth. When he was still a young boy attending school, he was always bullied by other boys his age or older on his way to and from school.

However, there is an upside to the story. This bullying experience gave McGregor the courage to learn how to defend himself by joining a boxing gym. This decision set him on the journey that made him the superstar he is today.

He is a trained plumber.

When he and his family moved to Lucan in his late teens, McGregor started an apprenticeship as a plumber and worked for 18 months. However, his passion was elsewhere, so he quit the apprenticeship and pursued a career in mixed martial arts (MMA).

He has one of the fastest wins in UFC history.

MMA fighters are some of the toughest fighters globally, and it is not rare for fights between these fighters to last for several rounds. However, on many occasions, you will see some MMA fighters achieving victory in just the first round of the fight. On some rare occasion, you will find a fight where one of the fighters lands a knockout victory only after a few seconds into the fight.

UFC 194: Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo is one of such fights. McGregor managed to land a victory just 13 seconds into the fight after he knocked out Jose Aldo, thereby winning and unifying the UFC Featherweight Championship.

Even before his career in UFC, McGregor was already known to deliver very fast knockout victories. A case in point is the Conor McGregor vs. Paddy Doherty fight in the Immortal Fighting Championship 4. It only took McGregor 4 seconds to defeat Doherty by KO (punch).

He is the first European to win two world championship titles in two different divisions.

McGregor has achieved many firsts in his career. One of the most remarkable firsts that he managed to achieve is that he was the first European to hold two world titles in two different weight categories during his heydays with the Cage Warriors.

Net Worth

Earning the number one spot on Forbes' published list of the world's highest-paid athletes of 2021, Conor McGregor is undoubtedly one of the richest sportsmen in the world today. He also found his place on the Forbes list of Celebrity 100 of 2020 and 30 Under 30 - Europe - Entertainment 2017. As of this writing, we estimate McGregor's net worth to sit between $250m and $415m. This wealth comes from many sources, one of which is his career as a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. For every fight Conor takes part in, he rakes in a fat paycheck, with many going up to seven figures. Aside from earning inside the Octagon, McGregor also earns fat paychecks in endorsements and other deals. 

He is undoubtedly the highest-paid UFC fighter of this era, having raked in estimated career earnings of about $230 million. This high figure, of course, takes into account the fat paycheck of roughly $100 million that he took away from his legendary fight against Floyd Mayweather. Outside of his career as a fighter, McGregor is also a good businessman as his various investments have given rise to a wide range of businesses. 

McGregor's very own Irish whiskey brand, Proper Twelve, was reported to have generated about $40 million in revenue this past year. He also partnered with A-list tailor Davis Heil to start "August McGregor," a menswear brand, which is doing well.  His sports management company "McGregor Sports and Entertainment" is also generating money left and right through advertisements and other promotions. He also has a media house named "Mac Life," which covers MMA, lifestyle, and fitness and has amassed millions of subscribers and followers on social media. The cherry on top is the sales of Proper Twelve, which earned McGregor $150 million in April 2021.

When it comes to making money, Conor McGregor has a big ambition. He proclaimed his ambition as he was quoted saying, "I'm 30 now, say by 35, I'll be a billionaire." McGregor made this statement about three years ago, and with all indications, it looks like this dream may not be so far-fetched.