{"id":585086,"date":"2026-04-04T13:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585086\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:51:09","slug":"ufc-star-conor-mcgregor-takes-part-in-surprise-boxing-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585086\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Star Conor McGregor Takes Part in Surprise Boxing Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in five years, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.givemesport.com\/tag\/ufc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">UFC<\/a> superstar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.givemesport.com\/tag\/conor-mcgregor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Conor McGregor<\/a> has fought in front of a crowd. &#8216;The Notorious&#8217; suffered a gruesome broken leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021 at UFC 264 and hasn&#8217;t competed in public since.<\/p>\n<p>Although he was boxing rather than stepping into the Octagon, Friday&#8217;s bout would have felt like a significant moment for the Irishman. The venue for his return could hardly have been more fitting as McGregor laced up the gloves for the Crumlin Boxing Club&#8217;s traditional Good Friday show in south Dublin. <\/p>\n<p>McGregor began his fighting journey at Phil Sutcliffe&#8217;s Sr&#8217;s gym as a youngster and the venue has understandably remained close to his heart ever since. The 37-year-old is a frequent attendee of the Good Friday event, but went one step further this year by stepping through the ropes.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, it didn&#8217;t take long for footage of the fight to start doing the rounds on social media. McGregor&#8217;s opponent in the exhibition contest was local amateur Barry Nolan. <\/p>\n<p>The contest was fought in protective gear and took place over three rounds at a relatively measured pace, though McGregor clearly had too much for Nolan, landing punches throughout and rarely taking a shot of any significance. He also scored standing eight counts in both the second and third rounds.<\/p>\n<p>                        Conor McGregor&#8217;s Surprise Boxing Match<\/p>\n<p>While the opposition was nowhere near professional standard, the outing provided a rare glimpse into McGregor&#8217;s current level of ability. Although the former two-division UFC champion occasionally puts out sparring videos on social media, these tend to be heavily edited.<\/p>\n<p>Fans in attendance were also thrilled to see the global star in action They paid just \u20ac10, a little over $11, for the privilege of watching one of the most recognisable athletes on the planet in action, whereas tickets to McGregor\u2019s last fight at UFC 264 started at $600, going up to more than $10,000.<\/p>\n<p>Before he stepped through the ropes, McGregor posted on Instagram to mark the occasion. &#8220;GOOD FRIDAY!&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;My Lord Jesus I am in awe of you! Fight day at Crumlin Boxing Club.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>                        Conor McGregor&#8217;s Next Fight<\/p>\n<p>        <img width=\"1650\" height=\"826\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Conor McGregor\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mixcollage-30-jan-2025-12-45-pm-9719.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mixcollage-30-jan-2025-12-45-pm-9719.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>McGregor is rumoured to be headlining <a href=\"https:\/\/www.givemesport.com\/conor-mcgregor-confirms-ufc-comeback-date-dana-white-leaks-opponent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">UFC 330 on the 11th of July at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas<\/a>, returning to the Octagon against an opponent who is yet to be confirmed. It would mark nearly five years to the day since he last competed at the highest level, a period that has included the Poirier injury, a cancelled bout with Michael Chandler due to a broken toe, as well as various legal issues and endless speculation about whether the comeback would ever materialise.<\/p>\n<p>A three-round exhibition may not mean much on the face of it, but that McGregor was willing to step into the ring is a positive sign as his proposed UFC comeback draws closer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in five years, UFC superstar Conor McGregor has fought in front of a crowd.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-585086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}