No more whiskey, no more stout. “The Notorious” won’t be getting drunk on his own supply as he prepares to return to the UFC later this year.
If you’ve been following Conor McGregor’s social media profile for the last couple of weeks, it goes something like this: shopping, family, shopping, his pub, the gym, an expensive watch, expensive car, his pub, his whiskey, his stout, whiskey, stout, pub, stout, gym, stout.
Suffice to say, there’s a whole lot of advertising for his business ventures. The Proper 12 whiskey has already earned him hundreds of millions of dollars and is the major reason he keeps topping Forbes’ ‘Highest Paid Athlete’ lists. The Forged Irish Stout? Right now it’s just an exclusive at his Black Forge Inn, but many expect him to take the brand and turn it into another massive business venture.
That means a lot of social media, and presumably a lot of stout being drank. Not the kind of thing that’s going to help McGregor when he steps back into the cage mid-2022 following that nasty leg-break against Dustin Poirier in July of 2021.
We’ve all seem what happened to McGregor when he got a bit carried away being the Spuds McKenzie for Proper 12. He showed up to his press conference against Khabib Nurmagomedov in a tipsy state and later admitted “I was drinking all the way through fight week last time.”
Those worried he might do the same for his return? “The Notorious” addressed that himself in a new social media post, declaring he was about to switch from restauranteur / alcohol sales rep back into a full on gym rat.
“For my fighting fans, I want to say I know I am enjoying myself with my liquid,” he wrote. “But very soon I will be immersing my self in full training again with complete abstention from my wonderful creations of Spirit and Ale. Just 5 more minutes Ma!”
We doubt McGregor’s been skipping gym days as it is given how gigantic he’s looked in recent pictures. But putting down the booze completely is certainly a good step for him en route to a summer comeback, especially considering the kind of trouble he seems to keep getting himself into when he’s enjoying the party life a little too much.
Still, it seems clear to us that he knows he’s got another $100 million dollar drink on his hands so it’s no surprise he’s pretty excited about that. With the UFC not paying him a fraction of that, we find it impressive that he’s willing to put so much blood and sweat into the fight game. When it’s the reputation as the biggest star in mixed martial arts that helps pump your business ventures, it makes sense.
Does it provide the same level of hunger as McGregor’s opponents have when they face him? That’s certainly a question worth asking.