A civil judgment against Conor McGregor by a Dublin jury for sexually assaulting a woman in 2018 has led to the MMA fighter being dropped by the popular whiskey brand he founded, Proper No. Twelve. The decision likely has little financial impact on McGregor, however, as he made at least $100 million on the whiskey by selling the brand in 2021.
McGregor founded the whiskey in early 2018 as the majority owner of the venture; minority partners include Audie Attar, McGregor’s business manager, and Ken Austin, an American spirits expert who developed other celebrity-driven spirits including Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson’s Teremana tequila.
Proper No. Twelve quickly capitalized on the rising popularity of Irish whiskey in the U.S., which grew 31% from 2018 through 2022, according to Distilled Spirits Council data. McGregor and his partners cashed in on the surge by selling the business to Becle, a publicly-traded Mexican company that owns a clutch of drink brands including Cuervo tequila, Kraken rum and Bushmills, the whiskey producer that makes Proper No. Twelve at its Irish distillery.
While the reported sales price of the brand is “up to $600 million,” Becle said in 2021 it had invested a total of $244 million cash. Last year, Proper No. Twelve was the 10th most sold Irish whiskey in the U.S., ahead of some well established brands such as Paddy.
Even at the Becle-stated cash price, that means McGregor probably made at least $125 million from the sale of Proper No. Twelve.
McGregor no longer has an ownership stake in the brand, and a Becle spokesperson added in a statement that McGregor would not appear in promotional materials as a sponsor any longer. “We do not plan to use Mr. McGregor’s name and likeness in the marketing of the brand,” the company said.
After the jury decision, the whiskey was pulled from shelves across Ireland and the U.K., according to press reports. The Proper No. Twelve website was also down Wednesday.
On Friday a jury in a civil trial in Dublin found McGregor sexually assaulted a woman in a Dublin hotel in late 2018 and ordered he pay her €248,603 in damages, about $263,000, according to a report in The Irish Times. Video game developer IO Interactive also cut ties with McGregor, who had been featured as a side character in the Hitman title.
In 2019, McGregor was convicted of assault for punching an elderly man in a Dublin pub after he refused to drink a shot of Proper No. Twelve, according to a BBC report.
(This story has been updated in the fifth paragraph with Becle’s confirmation that McGregor no longer holds an ownership stake.)
