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Conor McGregor advised boxing should finish its relationship with him as soon as and for all

Boxing now needs to end its bizarre relationship with Conor McGregor.

The MMA fighter has been regularly invited ringside to high-profile bouts where his supposed larger than life character has been used as some sort of promotional vehicle, while his old and current companies have lent financial assistance to major promoters’ cards.

We’ve even had to endure the fighter – who is without a professional boxing licence – get into the ring and promote said products. It has always been uncomfortable to see McGregor get prominence over actual boxers at boxing events.

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Nikita Hand speaking to the media outside the High Court in Dublin after the personal injury case against Conor McGregor.
Nikita Hand speaking to the media outside the High Court in Dublin after the personal injury case against Conor McGregor

Yes, he’s had a lucrative bout with Floyd Mayweather Jnr but that was a circus act and he never had the skill or the interest to make a real career in the ring. In reality, he’s a name from another sport which has had people backing it who have consistently tried to damage boxing’s brand by claiming it was yesterday’s news while MMA was the future.

McGregor was a figurehead for MMA and UFC for so long so why he was welcomed into boxing with open arms remains a puzzle. But, in the wake of last week’s news from Dublin, the sport has the perfect chance to close the door on the Irishman.

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Boxing simply has to end this strange, forced relationship. McGregor was accused of “brutally raping and battering” 35-year-old Nikita Hand at a hotel in Dublin in 2018.



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Mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor and partner Dee Devlin outside the High Court in Dublin

Last Friday, he was ordered to pay around £200,000 in damages after a jury found him liable of assaulting Hand. The former two-weight UFC champion has vehemently denied the claims, and has insisted he will appeal the decision.

Now boxing is hardly a place for morals. Gangsters have been involved in the sport for almost as long as it has existed and criminals – both reformed and not so – continue to be allowed to work in it.

Boxing often doesn’t care where the money comes from as long as it can be spent. But when companies are distancing themselves from McGregor and supermarkets taking products off the shelves, the sport has to make its own stand.