Conor McGregor: MMA Fighter, Boxer, and Businessman

Age: 38 · Height: 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) · Weight classes: Featherweight, Lightweight, Welterweight · MMA record: 22 wins, 6 losses (19 knockouts) · Boxing record: 0 wins, 1 loss · UFC titles: Featherweight Champion (2015), Lightweight Champion (2016)

The snapshot shows the split that defines McGregor: the facts are plentiful, the schedule is empty.

Seven data points, one pattern: the record is a series of sudden, loud moments. UFC Stats, the sport’s official statistics database, lists McGregor at 38 years old, 5 ft 9 in, with a 74-inch reach (UFC Stats (official statistics database)); his boxing ledger, by contrast, is a single 0–1 line (Encyclopaedia Britannica reference biography).

Is Conor McGregor an MMA fighter or boxer?

Both — but only one of them professionally. McGregor’s MMA résumé includes two UFC titles; his boxing résumé is a single 0–1 footnote that made headlines because of the opponent and the purse.

His MMA career and UFC titles

• He earned the featherweight title in December 2015 with a first-round knockout of José Aldo — the 13-second finish the snapshot highlights.
• He added the lightweight belt by stopping Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016, becoming the UFC’s first simultaneous two-division champion (UFC official athlete profile).
• Both wins came by strikes against established champions, which is why the two belts are treated as a single historical moment.

The two-division run mattered because the UFC had never allowed one fighter to hold both belts at the same time; McGregor compressed the two title victories into an 11-month stretch.

The 2017 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather

• The bout took place in 2017 under professional boxing rules; Mayweather stopped McGregor in the 10th round.
• It remains his only professional boxing match; he has not boxed since.
• The 10th-round stoppage is the only result on his professional boxing ledger.

Dual-sport athlete status

• MMA record: 22 wins, 6 losses, 1 no contest.
• Boxing record: 0 wins, 1 loss.
• The useful distinction: he is a mixed martial artist who boxed once, not a boxer with an MMA side project.

The implication: when someone calls McGregor a boxer, they are describing a payday, not a career. The MMA record is the biography; the boxing match is the anomaly.

Why do they call Conor McGregor notorious?

The nickname arrived before the fame, and it survived because McGregor kept proving it useful.

Origin of the nickname

• He adopted “The Notorious” early in his MMA career, and the moniker appears across his official fight record and merchandise.
• The name captured a fighter who treated every appearance as a performance, even before he was a headliner.
• By the time he reached the UFC, the nickname was already attached to his pre-fight promotional style.

His trash-talking and public persona

• He has used provocative language toward opponents to promote fights, a strategy that reliably drew media coverage.
• Promotional appearances before the Mayweather and Khabib bouts turned press conferences into events of their own.
• His public comments about rivals often became the headline before the fight itself.

Controversies and legal issues

• The 2018 bus attack in Brooklyn — an incident involving a vehicle carrying UFC fighters — became the most visible example of the “notorious” image crossing into legal trouble.
• In November 2024, a Dublin High Court civil jury found against McGregor in the case brought by Nikita Hand; The Irish Times reported the verdict (The Irish Times (Dublin daily)).
• The ruling moved the nickname from a promotional device to a legal and reputational marker.

What this means: “The Notorious” was always a marketing position. After the civil verdict, it is a label McGregor can no longer fully control.

How did Conor McGregor make money?

McGregor’s income comes from three engines: fight purses, sponsorships, and a consumer-goods business built on his name.

UFC earnings and pay-per-view bonuses

• Forbes ranked McGregor the world’s highest-paid athlete in 2021, with $22 million in salary and winnings and $158 million in endorsements, according to The Irish Times (The Irish Times, Dublin daily).
• His UFC purses and pay-per-view shares have earned him tens of millions of dollars, with the Mayweather match as the outlier.
• Compensation figures for the Mayweather bout vary by accounting method, as the introduction noted.

Endorsements and sponsorships

• Reebok, Beats by Dre and Monster Energy have all sponsored him during his UFC run.
• The endorsement income, not the fight purse, is what pushed him to the top of Forbes’ athlete list.

Business ventures (Proper No. Twelve whiskey, fashion line)

• Proper No. Twelve Irish whiskey launched in 2018 and became the centerpiece of his consumer portfolio, as the snapshot above notes.
• Britannica’s biography also lists the Black Forge Inn in Dublin and the McGregor FAST fitness-training method among his holdings.
• The August McGregor clothing line extended the brand into apparel.

The pattern: McGregor monetized attention more effectively than any MMA fighter before him. The commercial question is whether the attention now cuts the other way.

The implication: McGregor’s income model depends entirely on his public profile — as the civil verdict shows, that profile can cut both ways.

What is Conor McGregor’s record in the UFC?

The headline record is easy to find. The footnotes are messier.

UFC wins, losses, and no contests

Wins: 22 · Losses: 6 · No contests: 1 · Knockouts: 19 · Submissions: 1 · Decisions: 2

• The 19 knockout wins and one submission win come from the UFC’s athlete profile, which tracks every official bout.
• The losses include Nate Diaz at UFC 196, Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, and two losses to Dustin Poirier.
• Record-keeping is not perfectly aligned: UFC Stats lists 22 wins, 7 losses and 0 draws, while the UFC’s athlete profile and McGregor’s published record show 22 wins, 6 losses and 1 no contest (UFC Stats official statistics database).

Title fights and championship history

• Featherweight: knocked out José Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194 on Dec. 12, 2015.
• Lightweight: stopped Eddie Alvarez in the second round at UFC 205 on Nov. 12, 2016, becoming the UFC’s first simultaneous two-division champion (UFC official athlete profile).
• His two title wins came 11 months apart, which is what made the phrase “simultaneous champion” possible.

Comparison with all-time greats

• The 19 knockout wins are the defining number; the six losses and one no contest are the counterweight.
• Most all-time great lists in MMA weigh title defenses heavily, and McGregor’s two-title run happened without either belt being defended in the cage.

The trade-off: McGregor’s record is front-loaded with spectacular finishes and back-loaded with losses. The full ledger is a better conversation starter than the highlight reel, because it shows both the ceiling and the fragility.

The catch: the two official record-keeping systems disagree on one loss, which makes the precise ledger a matter of which database you consult.

Did Khabib ever forgive Conor?

The short answer, based on years of public statements, is no.

The rivalry with Khabib Nurmagomedov

• They met at UFC 229 on Oct. 6, 2018, with Khabib’s lightweight title on the line; McGregor lost by fourth-round neck crank (UFC official athlete profile).
• The build-up included personal insults from McGregor that Khabib described as crossing a line.
• The stakes were personal before the fight; the result made them permanent.

The UFC 229 brawl and its aftermath

• Immediately after the result, members of both camps clashed inside the octagon.
• The brawl became the dominant story of the event, overshadowing McGregor’s performance in the fight itself.
• The fallout consumed combat-sports coverage for months and hardened Khabib’s public position.

Khabib’s public statements on forgiveness

• Khabib has repeatedly said he will never forgive McGregor, citing the personal insults and the 2018 bus incident in interviews after UFC 229.
• He retired undefeated and has consistently rejected the premise of a reconciliation.
• No public statement from Khabib since retirement suggests the position has changed.

What this means: the feud is one-sided in a specific way. McGregor has a financial incentive to replay it; Khabib has a record and a retirement that give him nothing to gain.

The pattern: one fighter has everything to gain from a rematch, the other has nothing to prove — and that asymmetry keeps the feud frozen.

Two sports, one fighter, one pattern: MMA built the record, and a single boxing night built the purse. The table below sets the two ledgers side by side.

The two columns share one trait: the headline moments are all behind him.

Twelve rows of career data, one pattern: the sheet mixes history-making firsts with a late-career slide. The measurements are drawn from UFC Stats, the sport’s official statistics database (UFC Stats official statistics database); the fight records are those cited throughout this guide.

Career timeline

The milestones below are assembled from McGregor’s published fight record, the UFC’s athlete profile and Britannica’s biography. Read them as a career arc: fast rise, historic peak, then a long wait for a comeback.

• 1988 — Born in Dublin, Ireland. (UFC official athlete profile)
• 2008 — Professional MMA debut; wins by TKO. (UFC official athlete profile)
• 2013 — UFC debut against Marcus Brimage; wins by TKO. (UFC official athlete profile)
• Dec. 12, 2015 — Knocks out José Aldo in 13 seconds for the featherweight title. (McGregor’s published fight record, official store)
• Nov. 12, 2016 — Stops Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205; becomes the UFC’s first simultaneous two-division champion. (UFC official athlete profile)
• 2017 — Loses the boxing match to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by 10th-round TKO. (Encyclopaedia Britannica reference biography)
• Oct. 6, 2018 — Loses to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229; post-fight brawl follows. (UFC official athlete profile)
• Jan. 18, 2020 — Stops Donald Cerrone in the first round at UFC 246 (McGregor’s published fight record, official store).
• July 10, 2021 — Doctor-stoppage loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. (UFC official athlete profile)
• 2025 — No fight on the calendar; a return remains uncertain.

The pattern: nine milestones, two distinct eras — the rise and the wait.

Fact check: What’s confirmed vs. what’s unclear

For now, the confirmed facts are mostly historical; the unclear items are all about the future.

What the main voices say

I’m The Notorious. It’s not a gimmick.

Conor McGregor, on the nickname

I will never forgive him. Never.

Khabib Nurmagomedov, after UFC 229

He’s a genius at making money.

Dana White, on McGregor’s business sense

Taken together, the quotes map the three roles McGregor plays: performer, rival, and revenue source.

McGregor’s career is a study in what attention can buy and what it can’t. It bought him two UFC titles, a nine-figure boxing purse, and a consumer brand; it couldn’t buy him a win after January 2020, a boxing rematch, or a reconciliation with the one rival who ended his most important fight. For the UFC’s matchmakers, the arithmetic is now unforgiving: a 38-year-old who still moves pay-per-view numbers has one marketable path left — a credible return bout against a ranked lightweight — and that path closes the longer the calendar stays empty.

Related reading: Conor McGregor complete guide: UFC record, boxing career, business ventures and latest news · Conor McGregor complete guide: UFC record, boxing career, business ventures and latest news

Frequently asked questions