Former UFC two-division champion, Conor McGregor, is less than a week removed from his sexual assault civil suit, which left him on the hook for nearly $260,000 (pending appeal), but that doesn’t mean “Notorious” has seen his last day in court.
The 36 year-old McGregor is expected to return to Dublin’s High Court in January to answer “a lot of personal and revealing questions” relating to his fizzled friendship with former UFC featherweight Artem Lobov, no stranger to “Notorious” lawsuits.
The Russian “Hammer” is suing McGregor over the creation of Proper 12 Irish Whiskey, which helped make “Notorious” the richest fighter in MMA. Lobov claims the entire operation was his idea and as such, he should be compensated accordingly.
“I told him about the dominance of Irish whiskey and all of that,” Lobov previously told talkSPORT. “He said, ‘you go off and see what deal you can put together’ and I went on my way. Lucky for me, when I was studying in college, I used to work in the bar at the Radisson Hotel and I had a friend who worked in the bar with me. He put me in touch with a man called Niall of Classic Drinks, a top drink distribution company in Ireland. Niall was kind enough to meet me, at the Radisson actually, and he was very generous with his information.”
“Once I got that information, I went on and met all different whiskey distilleries,” Lobov continued. “I called some and met some in person. I did my research and put a beautiful deal together. Once the deal was ready, I went to Conor and I said, ‘Conor, I have the deal ready for you. This is going to be a billion-dollar deal, no messing here.’ I’m not sure if he took me seriously or not at the time with the billion dollars. I introduced Audie [Attar] and the rest of the Paradigm [Sports Management] team to my deal and all the people I was already working with and then we got going.”
Lobov claims he talked McGregor into switching from vodka to Irish whiskey.
“This case is not before a jury but could cost [McGregor] around eight million if he loses,” a source told Irish Star. “As far as Artem is concerned, he shook hands on a deal with Conor McGregor and gave up a couple of years of his life to help make his whiskey a success.”
McGregor sold Proper 12 back in 2021 and banked an estimated $600 million, with Lobov’s cut of the deal landing somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.00. Whether or not the 38 year-old “Hammer” is entitled to financial compensation remains to be seen.