Conor McGregor

Dana White was in Dublin for a personal visit in 2013 when pub strangers kept telling him to sign this unknown Irish fighter. He offered McGregor a contract without watching him fight. Two years later, McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds, ending Aldo's decade-long unbeaten streak with the fastest title fight finish in UFC history. He became the first fighter to hold two UFC titles simultaneously, then crossed into boxing against Floyd Mayweather in one of the highest-grossing combat sports events ever staged.

A Dublin civil court found him liable for sexual assault in November 2024, ordering him to pay €250,000 in damages and later €1.5 million in legal costs. Proper No. Twelve dropped him as brand ambassador immediately after the verdict and pulled the whiskey from shelves across Ireland and the UK. The Irish Court of Appeal rejected his challenge in July 2025. An 18-month anti-doping ban from missed sample collections ran through March 2026. He's reportedly cleared for a UFC comeback, but that's now just one corner of a much messier public record.

Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey wasn't just a branding play, the name is a direct nod to Crumlin, his Dublin 12 childhood neighborhood, where a local gang feud reportedly killed more than a dozen people during his formative years. He was a plumber's apprentice before MMA became viable. He reportedly believes in the Law of Attraction, introduced to it by his sister. The whiskey brand sold for up to $600 million in 2021, and he reportedly cleared $250 million from it before the deal even closed, which suggests the fights were always just marketing.