Conor McGregor’s Welfare Checks Story Revealed by Dana White While Speaking on Initial Days of Signing Irish UFC Star

“From nothing to something to everything” is how Conor McGregor summed up his journey after beating Jose Aldo for the featherweight title at UFC 194 in 2015. The Irish MMA icon has a true rags-to-riches story, where he went from being a plumber to a two-weight world champion in two MMA promotions, including the UFC. The 2021 Forbes highest-paid athlete is also, without a doubt, the richest MMA star of all time. But this was not always the case for ‘The Notorious’ as UFC CEO Dana White recently revealed.

In his latest escapade with Randall Kaplan on his podcast, ‘In Search Of Excellence’, Dana White narrated the story that forced him to take McGregor under the promotion. The UFC head honcho explained that when he went to Ireland for an award ceremony he threw a party at the local bar and invited everyone through his social media [which was fairly new at that time] to have a drink with him. People flocked to him in massive numbers and all of them had one name on their lips:-Conor McGregor.

“Everybody keeps talking about this guy, Conor McGregor, Conor McGregor, Conor McGregor. For some reason, whatever it was, I don’t know why, I was drinking too, but I thought he was a heavyweight. So I come back and I tell Sean Shelby, our matchmaker, I said, ‘This kid Conor McGregor,’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I know him,'” said Dana White.

The UFC head honcho further emphasized that they signed McGregor shortly after and flew him to the USA. After White had dinner with him he knew that McGregor would be their superstar in the future if he could fight as well as he talked. Dana White later revealed that McGregor was actually living off of welfare checks before starting his professional career – “You know the story of Conor McGregor being on welfare and all this other stuff. It’s just another thing that goes to show you can take somebody that didn’t go to college and didn’t—Conor is a tremendous businessman.”

Eddie Alvarez once infamously taunted McGregor about living off those checks, but it didn’t deter the former dual-weight champion from creating history at their UFC 205 fight.

The UFC supremo Dana White has always stated that Conor McGregor is one of the best men you could do business with and he for sure stands by his words. “Conor is a tremendous businessman. I mean, Conor is one of the best partners, if not the best partner, we’ve ever had when it comes to being in business with somebody,” said White. ‘Mystic Mac’s story is nothing less than a rollercoaster ride. Well, why did Dana White state that McGregor is an exceptional businessman? Let us find out.

Conor McGregor’s net worth in 2024

Conor McGregor is probably the richest MMA fighter to have ever come out of that sport and from the promotion. His story is nothing less than a rollercoaster ride. There was a time when McGregor was working as a plumber and never thought of making it big. Nonetheless, times surely changed for ‘Mystic Mac’ as he became the first simultaneous double champ of the promotion.

His name reached far beyond the scale of the promotion after his double champ status, and McGregor knew how to capitalize on that. Alongside his partner, he started the “Proper Twelve” brand, which was later sold to Proximo Spirits for a whopping $600 million and McGregor earned a substantial amount from the deal. He now owns another beverage brand known as ‘Forged Strout’ which is recently making noise around the world.

In addition to that, McGregor has a media company that has millions of subscribers on YouTube known as ‘The Mac Life’. His total net worth as of 2024 stands between $150-200 million. Now that McGregor is about to come back to the promotion again, what are your thoughts on his career? State your thoughts in the comments below.