Conor McGregor was found civilly liable for sexual assault in Ireland. Although, he proclaims his innocence and vows to appeal the verdict, the public relations hit has cost him his Proper 12 deal as well as his IO Interactive deal with the video game, Hitman where he was a character.
An Irish Court found McGregor guilty and awarded damages to the plaintiff in the amount of $257,000 USD.
McGregor established the brand Proper 12 in 2018 and had sold off his stake in 2021 but remained the public face of the company. McGregor was a character in the video game and had done commercials advertising it.
As of Tuesday, the UFC has not issued a statement regarding the verdict. It was predicted that McGregor would fight in 2025 and it does not appear (as of now) that the company will seek to terminate the fighter’s contract.
Payout Perspective:
To be honest, I was surprised that Proper 12 dropped McGregor. The video game likely was relieved that it could get up from under whatever they were paying him as McGregor had not pushed the video game (at least in North America) for a while. Despite selling off his stake, the company believed that being synonymous with the former two division champ would help. But this news, probably pressed the question of what value McGregor brought to the brand. We will see if any other sponsors will follow suit.
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