Former UFC double champion Conor McGregor may be gearing up for his big event against Michael Chandler on June 29th. But it seems like he’s also taken aim at an unlikely target – the iconic Guinness brand and its founder Arthur Guinness.
In a series of posts on the “Guinness Community” Facebook group, McGregor infiltrated the online community to hurl insults at Guinness. Arthur Guinness who founded the brewery in 1759. McGregor accused him of being “a spy for a foreign government hell-bent on preventing the freedom of the nation of Ireland.”
McGregor recently launched his own Forged Irish Stout brand and didn’t hold back. He called the Guinness founders ‘greedy robbing b**tards’ and claiming ‘Rarthur Guinness was a rat for a foreign entity.’
Additionally, McGregor promoted his own stout as ‘the working man’s drink!’ while deriding Guinness for regular price hikes ‘out of pure greed.’
The Irish MMA icon and entrepreneur is clearly attempting to position his upstart beer brand as a patriotic alternative to the centuries-old Guinness, which has an estimated $2.59 billion brand value as of 2024. However, taking on such an iconic Irish brand seems a bold and unorthodox marketing approach.
McGregor’s tiff with Guinness comes as his plans for a massive UFC 303 world tour press conference in Ireland were postponed without explanation. The incident ended up disappointing thousands of fans who had secured free tickets. The MMA star had also been seen celebrating at his Black Forge Inn pub recently.
The UFC withheld their explanation for canceling the press conference, and they haven’t stated their reasoning for doing so as of yet. Even a month before the bout, UFC 303 has already broken a number of important records. According to Dana White, the event has been already sold out.
Whether McGregor’s social media rants against Guinness are merely premature promotional antics or hint at larger business battle plans remains to be seen. But the former champion has certainly gotten people’s attention with his brash Guinness takedown.
