Conor McGregor has taken a massive hit, losing a whopping $500,000 after betting on the co-main event at UFC 314 on Saturday night.
Paddy Pimblett and Michael Chandler were in the spotlight as the lead-up to Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight clash with Diego Lopes in Miami, Florida. McGregor, ahead of the highly anticipated bout, placed his faith in Chandler, predicting a ‘brutal KO.’ The bet could have netted the Irish fighter $2.5million, but for ‘The Notorious,’ that sum is just pocket change. However, it was ‘The Baddy’ who triumphed, securing a stunning TKO victory in the third round.
Before the fight, McGregor took to social media, saying: “What’s up, everybody. It’s the ‘Notorious’ … I want to wish you all a great fight night tonight, and come through for my best bet of the night. The fight I’m interested in is Michael Chandler vs Paddy Pimblett. And I’m going Michael Chandler to win, and win by KO. Though Paddy has improved in his last few outings, I still fancy Chandler to do it. Let’s go, boys.”
After the event, Pimblett caught wind of McGregor’s bet and didn’t hold back during the UFC 314 post-fight press conference. He said: “Even (Conor) McGregor putting money on Chandler to win, lad. The Irish-Scouse connection,” adding: “He’s meant to back me. And even never! So if he wants it, he can get it as well.”
He continued: “Yeah I didn’t think he’d go against me, to be honest. I thought he’d back me and not Chandler, but it’s one of them isn’t it? I don’t know if I’ll ever see him. You never know, I’ll say to him ‘what happened there? F*****g hell, the Irish-Scouse connection, you’re meant to back me, but you went for the Yank instead.’ But, it’s one of them, if he ever wants to come back, I’ll be here waiting.”
Just days before the lightweight brawl, McGregor himself posted on X – formerly known as Twitter – that he’ll be closely watching the co-main event at the Kaseya Center. “I am interested in the Chandler/Pimblett fight this weekend,” the post read. The 36-year-old then tagged several accounts, including the UFC and TKO Group Holdings. It also featured a forty-two second video of the former dual-weight champion hitting the pads – potentially hinting at a return to the cage.
With Pimblett open to a showdown with McGregor and the latter seemingly interested, there’s no doubt that a potential fight between the pair would shatter all sorts of UFC records. Reflecting on his flawless win on Saturday night, ‘The Baddy’ said: “Lad, literally everything I have worked with my team, all the fight run-throughs we’ve done, has just happened here,” an ecstatic Pimblett told Joe Rogan before issuing several call-outs.
“This is how we win: we gameplan, we use our fight IQ, and we beat motherf*****s up. [I want] anyone in the top four, top five. I want that world title. Laugh all you want. What now? You gang of mushrooms. I want Dustin [Poirier], Justin [Gaethje], Charles [Oliveira] or the little posh boy Arman [Tsarukyan] – any of them four. I respect Dustin, Justin and Charles. Charles is the biggest legend out of them all, and he gets called the best submitting artist the UFC’s ever seen. Well, I dispute that, I’m here.”
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