UFC interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor made his league debut in April of 2013, knocking out Marcus Brimage in 67 seconds, and winning a $60,000 Knockout of the Night performance bonus.
“I’ll buy myself a car any way,” he said post fight. “A nice car, may be some suits or something. Custom made suits, I don’t know.”
“I didn’t have money before this… I was collecting 188 Euro ($245) a week off the social welfare. And now here I am, with like 60 Gs bonus and then my own pay. I don’t know what the f—s going on to be honest, right?”
Conor didn’t come from money. His father Tony drove a cab in Crumlin, Ireland for 25 years, but couldn’t always afford to keep it on the road. Now Tony drives a brand new 5 series BMW.
Ger Keville has the story for Ireland’s Independent.
Speaking on the Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio, Tony McGregor emphasized the extent of Conor’s generosity and how he has changed their lives forever.
He told listeners that after his fight in Vegas, McGregor sat his family down and told them he was going to look after them.
He told his parents that he was going to buy their house – meaning they are now mortgage free while retaining in interest in the house.
“I drove a taxi around Dublin for 25 years and it was one of the best things I ever done but there was a time when I couldn’t afford to run the car,” said Tony.
Tony added that himself and the rest of the family, along with Conor’s long-time girlfriend Dee Devlin, were summoned to a meeting with Conor and his accountant when The Notorious presented them all with a generous surprise.
He spelled it out exactly what he was going to do for us. We walked out of there and we all had BMWs. I am driving a 5 series BMW now at the moment, brand spanking new. His mother is also driving one and his sister is driving one.”
We travel all the time and we go to some really salubrious locations like Vegas, Sweden and Boston but we have also been in the less salubrious locations prior to Conor being in the UFC,” added Tony.
We have been to GAA halls, we did the small venues around town before he was signed so we have been there from the start.”
At that stage, Conor still lived with his parents at their home in Lucan.
“It suited him at the time (to live in his parents’ house). He has an A-list lifestyle now, he is more used to the Jacuzzis and swimming pools and we don’t have that.”
With McGregor’s lavish lifestyle comes the brash, superstar attitude but Tony admits he wasn’t always as flamboyant and self-confident.
“This is the thing that mystifies me because we didn’t see that, we didn’t see that persona. The only indication we had of that persona is when he won his first UFC fight in Sweden,” said Tony.
That’s when his showbiz personality was born and I think he saw that and just built on it.”
He is a multi-millionaire now and also he is on the cusp of signing a major deal with the UFC, the biggest deal in the UFC history so he knows exactly where he is going in the business stakes as well.”
