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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Donagh Corby

Inside Conor McGregor's three-day Grand National party in Liverpool

Conor McGregor's infamous three-day Grand National party saw the Notorious steal the show at Aintree in 2017.

Then the recently-crowned UFC lightweight champion, McGregor was just days away from agreeing to fight Floyd Mayweather in what would become the second-biggest fight in combat sports history. And he was still in party mode from the previous November's win over Eddie Alvarez which had made him the first ever champion to hold two belts simultaneously in the UFC.

McGregor, at the time more famous for appearing on the back pages as opposed to the front, rocked up to Liverpool with a fleet of cars and accompanied by a crew of pals, reports The Mirror.

His entourage included Bellator fighter Charlie Ward, who at the time was still signed to the UFC.

The two-weight world champion showed up in typical bombastic fashion, wearing an opened shirt and stylish sunglasses. He arrived around midday of the big race, showing no regard for the dress code as he emerged from a £200,000 Rolls Royce.

McGregor and pals took three Rolls from John Lennon airport to the Hilton hotel where they quickly got ready for the day of races before heading out.

He would later be photographed standing atop one of their fleet of cars, but first there was the small matter of the race itself. McGregor and pals watched One For Arthur pick up the the feature event win before heading off to Mansion Nightclub in Liverpool.

There, he partied with his entourage into the early hours of the following morning, before eventually getting on the decks to do a brief impromptu DJ set. "We've had lots of celebrities at the club," said promoter Michael Ellis. "But this has to be the biggest event we’ve ever been a part of in the six years we’ve been open. It's been on another level.

"The reaction he gets is ridiculous, wherever he goes it’s madness. At the airport, as soon as he touched on our soil, people were hanging out of the windows trying to see him. Even driving to the Hilton there were cars pulling up alongside us and slamming on their brakes in traffic to try and look in the windows, and bouncing the kerb outside the hotel just to see him."

The trip remained raucous, and almost saw McGregor face legal action after posting a photo on top of his rented Rolls. He captioned the photo "Liverpool we run your entire city," and it was liked over one million times by fans on his page.

But Platinum Executive Travel, who rented him the car, didn't like it too much, and were said to be looking into the possible damages to the car before considering taking legal action, which never amounted to much.

Social media personality “Lord” Aleem Iqbal, whose dad Saleem runs the executive rental firm, posted an angry response to McGregor’s post. He said: “When you own one Conor you can stand on it like Floyd until then you can lose your deposit for standing on mine.”

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