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Lobov retired from fighting in July 2021.ĭespite no longer owning the bulk of Proper Twelve, McGregor remains a part of the brand. “I’m hoping my book does well and I will tell the story in the book. “With the whiskey, there was a bit more to the story about how that went about and what happened, but I don’t want to share that yet,” Lobov said. “You know, throughout my career whenever I have helped Conor with camps, he offered to pay me for them camps, but I never accepted money from him.”Īccording to talkSPORT, Lobov did not disclose if he made any money from the business, but he will reveal that and more in his autobiography. “Conor offered me $1m but I turned it down, I didn’t accept it,” he said. Lobov said McGregor offered to pay him a $1 million reward, but he refused. This is going to be a billion-dollar deal, no messing here.’ I’m not sure if he took me seriously or not at the time with the billion dollars,” Lobov said. “Once the deal was ready, I went to Conor and I said, ‘Conor, I have the deal ready for you. I did my research and put a beautiful deal together.” “Once I got that information, I went on and met all different whiskey distilleries,” Lobov said. Lobov met with the rep and learned from him. Lobov’s old friend put him in touch with a representative from Ireland distribution company Classic Drinks. One of his former coworkers at the bar had ended up becoming the general manager of a hotel. While studying finance, Lobov had learned about Irish whiskey, but he had also worked at a bar. McGregor told Lobov to put a deal together and come back to him. However, Lobov had studied Irish whiskey history and believed the market to have a great deal of potential, so he pitched McGregor on switching routes. If McGregor wanted to start a vodka brand, Lobov told him he would get him a better deal in Russia. Lobov said he told McGregor that while he believed a vodka brand was worth exploring, he wouldn’t launch one in Iceland, since it isn’t known for vodka, and it’s an expensive country, so production costs would be steep. It looks like a pretty good deal what do you think about that?'” “He said, ‘he was doing one in Iceland and now he’s offering me the chance to do one as well. “After the second Diaz fight, me and Conor were in the gym and we were talking one day and he says to me, ‘Artem, Thor, – ‘The Mountain’ out of Game of Thrones – I was chatting to him, and he’s offered me to do my own vodka,” Lobov told talkSPORT. McGregor came to Lobov for advice because he has a master’s degree in finance. This idea came from Icelandic strongman Hafþór Björnsson. I was the person who came up with the idea to do a whiskey for Conor,” Lobov told talkSPORT.Īccording to Lobov, McGregor’s initial plan was to create an Icelandic vodka brand. A few people know, but this was actually my idea. “The selling point of my book will be the Proper 12 Whiskey story. The Russian fighter teased some details about his role in Proper Twelve while promoting his upcoming book. McGregor’s longtime teammate and friend, Artem Lobov, revealed that it was his idea for McGregor to create an Irish whiskey brand, and apparently, Lobov actually did quite a bit of the legwork to get the brand started. But where did the idea to create Proper Twelve come from? The assumption has always been that it was McGregor’s idea, or perhaps his team, but it turns out, that’s not quite true. In April 2021, McGregor sold his majority stake in the brand for about $155 million - evidence of the brand’s commercial triumph. Despite the whiskey itself being nothing special, by merit of marketing and the McGregor name, Proper Twelve has enjoyed massive success and is poised to become the second-biggest Irish whiskey in the U.S. Ultra-famous MMA fighter Conor McGregor’s Proper Twelve Irish whiskey brand launched in 2018 and was an immediate commercial hit. Russian fighter Artem Lobov (left) poses with Irish fighter and founder of Proper Twelve Irish Whiskey Conor McGregor.

Mcgregor irish whiskey