Conor McGregor is a serious player in the world of bare-knuckle boxing, according to BKFC president David Feldman.
Earlier this month, McGregor and Feldman signed papers in the Dubliner’s Black Forge Inn to formalise an arrangement in which McGregor became a co-owner of the upstart fight league; a move which is expected to provide a promotional boon for BKFC.
The terms of the deal have no yet been made public but speaking to Ariel Helwani on a recent edition of The MMA Hour via MMA Fighting, Feldman said that McGregor’s investment is a substantial one and rejected suggestions that it is little more than a publicity stunt.
“I’m going to let him disclose what he wants to disclose about that,” Feldman said of the specifics of the arrangement. “I’m going to tell you that he has needle-moving equity. He has substantial equity in the company. He has enough equity to really make a big play here, and I think he’s going to. He’s going to have a say. He’s going to have opinions and say and ideas, and we look forward to it all.”
The deal came a year or so removed after McGregor appeared at a BKFC event headlined by Mike Perry and Luke Rockhold in Broomfield, Colorado. As Feldman recounts, McGregor’s Forged Irish Stout came on board as a sponsor — and after that, the discussions progressed to equity.
“We just started having conversations,” he said. “One thing led to another and here we are. He is a partner of BKFC and we couldn’t be any more excited about it. It’s going to be an unbelievable partnership.”
“Blood, sweat, and tears, you don’t know what I had to do to get this thing to this point and I love talking about the company and being the guy there. I love it,” Feldman said of the company he founded in 2018. “But they don’t want to see me if they have a choice between me or Conor McGregor. So Conor McGregor all day long.
“The ones he can make that appearance to, would absolutely love him to do it and he’s going to. He loves the sport because it’s as real as it gets.”
