Trunks from McGregor’s first loss on EBay
“I just found them in my closet, and somehow I figured out that those were the trunks that I defeated McGregor in.”
When comparisons were first drawn between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, the former was not impressed, drawing a sharp distinction between his perfect record over 20 years, and McGregor’s recent loss to Diaz. Money likely didn’t know at the time that Notorious lost two fights early in his career, too.
MMA and prizefighting have distinct career paths. A prospect in boxing is fed years of tomato cans; the need is such that some gyms focus on opponents. MMA offers fair fights, and nearly every fighter loses early. McGregor’s first loss came in just his third fight, via kneebar, in barely over a minute. The winner was Lithuania’s Artemij Sitenkov, and as he was recently going through a closet, he found a piece of the sport’s history – the shorts he wore that night on June 28, 2008.
Sitenkov is retired now, lives in his nation’s capital of Vilnius, co-founded two Vale Tudo MMA Academy fight gyms, owns a pawn shop, and tries to make the world a better place. So it only made sense to put the shorts on EBay, and put half the proceeds towards charity.
The auction ends on August 25, the day before MayMac. You can bid RIGHT HERE.
I just found them in my closet, and somehow I figured out that those were the trunks that I defeated McGregor in, he said to Chuck Mindenhall for MMA Fighting. And since I’m involved in charity, and I take some kids from the orphanage to train them for free, my acquaintance — who involved me with a specific charity — told me about a program. I don’t have a lot of money, and somehow the idea came. I thought it would be cool.
In the context of hype about this next Conor fight, everything just felt logical and the idea came just in time.
I want to help kids. There may be wishes, desires, quality of life. I want to help.
Like everyone on the planet, Sitenkov has some thoughts on MayMac.
I don’t think McGregor has a chance over Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match,” he said. “But since it’s a money fight — as everybody calls it — I don’t think Floyd will be allowed to defeat him instantly. Maybe he’s not able to defeat him instantly, but still, since there’s a lot of money invested in this, organizers most likely want this fight to last longer. It’ll last longer than those old Mike Tyson fights.
“[McGregor]’s a normal guy. He trained hard and reached all his goals. Congrats to him.
