Conor McGregor was once one of the highest earning athletes on the planet – a monetary match for Cristiano Ronaldo taking home up to £128million-a-year at the height of his UFC fame.
But the controversial Irishman, 36, is fighting to salvage his reputation after he lost a civil case brought by Nikita Hand, 35, who won almost €250,000 (£210,000) in damages on Friday after accusing him of rape.
And he may also face a battle to save more of his fortune because at least four women have made similar allegations over the past five years – and may now feel empowered to sue him despite police and prosecutors rejecting their cases.
Ms Hand said outside court on Friday: ‘To all the victims of sexual assault. I hope my story is a reminder that no matter how afraid you might be, speak up, you have a voice, and keep on fighting for justice.’
She convinced a jury in Dublin that McGregor was lying when he denied he had ‘brutally raped’ and ‘battered’ her in a hotel penthouse during a drink and cocaine-fuelled Christmas ‘after party’ in 2018.
She gave harrowing evidence describing how she was choked and ‘kept thinking I would die’. Six years later she was vindicated in court in a case that heard her partner was stabbed when masked men invaded their home earlier this year.
McGregor has been accused of sex attacks on at least four other occasions, all of which were dismissed police, most recently in Miami last year at the NBA Finals.
In every case case he has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and on at least one occasion sources close to him said allegations of sexual assault were mendacious and money-related.
Conor McGregor, pictured with his partner of 15 years Dee Devlin, could face further civil claims
Footage showed Conor McGregor’s sexual assault accuser sitting with the MMA fighter at a Miami club table in the minutes after she claims he molested her in a bathroom last year
An Irish woman claimed a ‘possessed’ Conor McGregor attacked her on his yacht during a party in Spain, forcing her to jump into the water to escape, according to reports in 2023. Pictured: McGregor is seen on his yacht in Ibiza in July 2022
In 2020 he was detained over an alleged sex attack in this Corsica bar
French gendarmes appeared on a quay to arrest Conor McGregor (at the right wearing a baseball cap) on the French island of Corsica over an alleged sexual assault attempt. The case was later dropped
Nikita Hand (pictured outside court) who successfully sued Mr McGregor for rape
The case was brought by Ms Hand after Ireland’s director of public prosecutions decided in 2020 not to bring criminal charges against McGregor and his friend James Lawrence due to a lack of evidence and no reasonable prospect of conviction.
After deliberating for six hours and 10 minutes, the jury in the civil case she brought returned with their verdicts in the civil trial against Conor McGregor last week.
Mr McGregor shook his head as the jury of eight women and four men returned with their verdict.
Responding to media reporting of Ms Hand’s comments outside the court on Friday when she declared ‘justice has been served’, McGregor wrote on X: ‘Justice was served for James Lawrence, yes!’ in reference to his co-accused, who was cleared of assault. Nikita Hand, vicious liar! APPEAL!’
In another post, he wrote: ‘Falsely accused a man of rape and lost.’
His own legal costs are understood to be around €300,000 and he will likely have to cover a large chunk of Ms Hand’s costs, likely to be in the region of €500,000.
These would be paid by him on top of the almost €250,000 (£210,000) he must pay her in damages.
Almost year after the hotel incident, McGregor was accused of another sex attack.
In October 2019, police received another complaint against him from a woman who said he had sexually assaulted her in a car outside a Dublin pub.
The UFC fighter denied the claim and prosecutors did not pursue any action over the complaint.
In September 2020, McGregor was detained and questioned by authorities on the French island of Corsica for alleged indecent exposure and sexual assault in a bar.
He spent two days in custody.
Eight months later, police and prosecutors declared a lack of sufficient evidence to justify a criminal prosecution.
The investigation is said to have included DNA collection that corroborated his version of events.
In July 2022 an Irish woman claimed McGregor attacked her on his yacht during a party in Spain, forcing her to jump into the water to escape.
The woman is understood to have claimed the UFC star kicked her in the stomach, punched her in the face and left her bruised during celebrations in Ibiza for his 34th birthday in July, describing him as ‘possessed’.
Asked whether McGregor was under investigation, a spokesman for the investigating magistrate said: ‘I can confirm a court in Ibiza is investigating an Irish national for an alleged crime of wounding.’
Conor McGregor, his mother Margaret and partner Dee Devlin outside the High Court in Dublin
In 2022 Samantha Murphy claimed she was attacked by the fighter off Ibiza and jumped off his boat (pictured in St Tropez) to escape
Karen Kessler, a spokesperson for McGregor, told MailOnline at the time: ‘Mr. McGregor is steadfast in his denial of all the accusations made by a guest on his boat.’
The local newspaper Periodico de Ibiza wrote: ‘According to her complaint, the mixed martial arts star became violent by surprise.
‘After beginning to criticise the victim, the trigger for the attack was according to her that she tried to get a friend who was on board the yacht to help her.’
Appearing to quote apparent extracts from the complaint, the paper said: ‘His behaviour changed at that moment and he became very aggressive.
‘It was as if he was possessed,’ Periodico de Ibiza reported she claimed in her statement. ‘I knew I had to leave the boat because I thought he was going to kill me.
‘We have common friends and I have met him on a number of occasions. I can’t believe what he did to me. I think he would have killed me if I hadn’t left the yacht.’
Periodico de Ibiza also claimed that in her statement to the Gardai a few days after she returned to Ireland at the end of July last year, she attributed her initial unwillingness to press charges in Spain to a state of shock when she was helped ashore by rescuers after she apparently jumped into the sea to escape.
It said she had complained she was wearing just her bikini when she went into the water. She said she had no money or phone and just wanted to get back to her hotel as soon as possible, the newspaper added.
It reported that she claimed in her Irish police statement: ‘They left me stranded. They wouldn’t even abandon a dog the way they did me.’
Samantha Murphy revealed she was the woman and later launched a civil case against McGregor after the alleged incident last summer.
The former UFC champion has faced a range of other legal claims in recent years, during which he has left and returned to the sport a number of times. Pictured: McGregor celebrates after defeating Donald Cerrone in a welterweight bout during UFC246 at T-Mobile Arena on January 18, 2020 in Las Vegas
Ms Murphy claims she suffered a broken arm after she was forced to jump from McGregor’s yacht while it was anchored off the coast of the Spanish island of Formentara.
After making her formal statement, the woman’s car was set ablaze outside of her Dublin home. In February 2023, a brick was reportedly thrown through a window of that residence.
In the same month it emerged that her civil claim was discontinued – but it is not clear if it was settled or thrown out.
In June 2023 the MMA fighter, who at the time was expecting his fourth child with his fiancée, was accused of forcing the unnamed accuser to perform a sex act on him in the VIP men’s bathroom at Game 4 of the NBA Finals in Miami.
A video obtained by TMZ showed him leading her into the men’s bathroom where she claims she was assaulted.
He appeared to lead her by the hand into the bathroom, before the door is closed behind them.
McGregor’s entourage of security guards is then shown blocking the entrance to the door.
His attorneys say the footage undermined the woman’s original allegation that he and his security guards forced her into the restroom.
McGregor denied the allegations. A source close to McGregor said at the time that he would cooperate fully with the investigation, but added the woman’s claims are false and that she is only interested in the star’s money.
On October 18 2023, the case was dropped.
It now remains to be seen if any of these women might also be willing to launch a new civil claim against him.
