Injury opens another new chapter in the nine-year saga of Conor McGregor's free fall
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- Conor McGregor earned over $100 million for his Aug. 26, 2017 loss to Floyd Mayweather — a guaranteed $30 million per the Nevada State Athletic Commission, plus pay-per-view, gate and merchandise revenue — in a fight that generated a $55.5 million live gate (second-biggest in boxing history) and 4.3 million PPV buys.
- Since the Mayweather fight, McGregor has recorded just one UFC win, with the intervening years marked by arrests, injuries, lawsuits and multiple allegations of sexual assault.
- McGregor threw a metal dolly through a bus window at Barclays Center on April 5, 2018, injuring Michael Chiesa, Ray Borg and Brandon Moreno; he was charged with three counts of assault and criminal mischief, an incident Dana White called "the most disgusting thing that has ever happened in the history of the company."
- McGregor lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov via fourth-round neck crank at UFC 229 on Oct. 6, 2018, then a brawl erupted inside and outside the cage; the NSAC fined him $50,000 and suspended him six months.
- McGregor's pre-UFC 229 trash talk crossed religious and cultural lines, including offering Nurmagomedov whiskey and calling his Egyptian manager a "terrorist," turning the bout into what the source calls one of the UFC's ugliest rivalries.
- UFC president Dana White told reporters in November 2017 that McGregor "might never fight again," reasoning: "The guy's got $100 f---ing million ... Money changes everything."
Why it matters: McGregor remains the UFC's most bankable star — UFC 229 alone set Nevada's MMA live-gate record at $17.2 million and drew 2.4 million PPV buys — but his competitive output since Mayweather is one UFC win in seven years plus a felony assault charge. The brand keeps printing money while the fighter's results crater, a gap the UFC has repeatedly chosen to monetize rather than address.
