Conor McGregor walked onto a stage at a fan event in Rome and "announced" his next career. The headlines left out one detail: he already owns part of it.
McGregor bought into Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship back in 2024. So when he tells a crowd that his final UFC contract fight will launch him into bare knuckle rather than end his career, he's talking his own book. He's standing at a microphone promoting the company that pays him.
The quotes are real. He said them, hot mic and all. "I'm going to lay down my gloves in that Octagon for my final UFC contract [fight], but not to retire, to announce bareknuckle. Teeth come and go, just like a nose." Great line. Built for a day of coverage across every MMA outlet on earth. He leaned in further: "I don't think there's any chance of a boring fight in bare knuckle... bare knuckle is very exciting, very dangerous, and it takes more courage for me, I think, to get in."
Now put that bravado next to the last time he actually fought. Last July, five years after his previous outing, McGregor came back against Max Holloway, tore his ACL and meniscus throwing a kick in the opening seconds, and was finished by TKO 69 seconds in. The loss dropped him to 22-7 and made it three straight, after two defeats to Dustin Poirier in 2021. He had surgery and is expected to be out close to a year. His last win came against Donald Cerrone in January 2020, before the pandemic was even declared.
So the pitch is this: a 38-year-old with one win in nearly seven years, coming off a 69-second knee explosion, promising a dangerous new combat career in a sport he hasn't signed a single contract for. And he profits from the hype either way.
He's not even selling it alone. BKFC president David Feldman has said he'd "bet the house" that McGregor eventually competes for the promotion, provided he comes out of his final Octagon appearance without another serious injury. That's a business partner selling the same story from the other side of the table, about a bout that doesn't exist. No date is confirmed, nothing is signed, and the final UFC fight itself is only penciled for sometime in 2027, something the UFC has never publicly backed. There's no fight, just a quote and a stage.
There's a version of this that's clever. McGregor did more to drag the UFC into the mainstream than any fighter alive, and bare knuckle is a small promotion that would kill for a fraction of that spotlight. If anyone could drag it onto pay-per-view marquees, it's him. Maybe that's the real play: an owner using his own fame to grow a property he's invested in.
It's cross-promotion with a face on it. And it's being cheered along by a crowd who should remember that a Dublin High Court jury found McGregor liable for sexually assaulting Nikita Hand, a finding he appealed and lost, and that he has denied throughout.
Until there's an actual bout agreement with a name and a date on it, "teeth come and go" is a headline manufactured by the guy who collects a cut of the headline.
