Conor McGregor has paid out around €10,000, or £8,600, to make sure that two Irish twins can achieve their dreams of fighting at a youth MMA tournament.
The Irish UFC legend is currently nursing a broken leg but has kept a keen eye on the sport at all levels, from his own promotion all the way down to youth teams. And when he learned that Irish brothers Adam and Dylan Duffy were struggling to reach their €6,000 goal on GoFundMe to make it to Abu Dhabi for the IMMAF youth championships, he stepped in with a monster donation.
McGregor has met the twins before at his Dublin hotspot, the Black Forge Inn, where he signed toys for the pair during a January meeting. He shared a photo at the time with the duo, and would later go on to make their dream trip to Abu Dhabi come true.
"I was at training when I found out and my coach told me about it so calmly,” Adam told the Gorey Guardian. “I was going insane. I thought he was joking until he showed me the comments. I feel like I have to win now because he donated all that money!”
“We might not have been able to go without his help,” his brother Dylan added. “There are so many gyms out there and he donated to us, which is insane.”
The tournament will take place from August 15-21 and will see the 13-year-old twins compete against some of the best young MMA talent in the world. IMMAF tournaments have produced some of the great prospects in the sport today, including UFC star Muhammad Mokaev and Bellator's Leah McCourt.
"On Sunday May 22, Adam and Dylan got picked for the IMMAF youth squad to represent Ireland in the world championships," their mother, Liz, wrote in a post on their GoFundMe. "They will fly out to Abu Dhabi in August to compete in the worlds.
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"Adam and Dylan train hard week in and week out. They never give up. They have the demands of secondary school life and the tons of homework to go with it. They train 5 nights a week sometimes twice a night. They give up their social life to do what they love.
"Making the team has made their year never mind day. We now need to raise them the funds needed to travel out to do what they do best. Anyone who knows the boys know how dedicated they are to the sport."
McGregor has always been a major supporter of Irish MMA at the grassroots level and has been known to make donations to young fighters on a regular basis. Bellator featherweight title contender Sinead Kavanagh was kept in the sport during her early years by a sponsorship from the Irish fighter, and is one of many examples.
