Conor McGregor’s $600m mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather may well have ruined his career in the long-term.

McGregor took a break from his primary sport, MMA, in 2017 to fight boxing’s poster boy Mayweather in a monumental crossover bout.

The bout came only nine months after McGregor set UFC history by becoming the first fighter in the promotion to hold two of their titles simultaneously.

McGregor had knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to win the UFC featherweight title in 2015 before doing the same to Eddie Alvarez in two rounds when they met almost one year later at UFC 205.

His subsequent fight with Mayweather was quite rightly billed as ‘The Money Fight’, as it generated more than $600milion to become the second most lucrative bout in the history of combat sports.

It was beaten only by Mayweather’s super fight with Manny Pacquiao two years prior, which also generated a similar amount as the former extended his record to 48-0.

And two UFC experts believe it might have been the wrong move considering his current plight.

“Is there a case for saying all that money he earned against Floyd Mayweather soon afterwards ruined him?” Gareth A Davies asked Ade Oladipo on talkSPORT MMA.

“Yeah,” Oladipo responded before Davies added: “Too much money, too much fame.”

“Too much too soon, too much too soon. It’s a shame isn’t it?” Oladipo said.

“You ask for these things, you dream about them, you beg for them. When they come, you don’t know how to handle them.

“He went from earning good money with the UFC to just life-changing money in one night.

“You ask for these things, you dream about them, you beg for them. When they come, you don’t know how to handle them.

“He went from earning good money with the UFC to just life-changing money in one night.

MMA fans around the world may be optimistic with their views on McGregor making a return one day, but Davies is certainly not.

“I don’t think he’ll ever fight again,” he said. “I really don’t.”

“It’s the Conor McGregor tour now he’s no longer a fighter. He’s involved with the bare knuckle and promoting that.

“He says he’s going to fight Jeremy Stephens, who was always going to be a good bare knuckle fighter.

“And I think Conor out of control is a good description, but he’s certainly on the road it looks like all the time enjoying himself, partying and you cant condone that behaviour [the spitting incident]…

“He’s 37 in July…four fights in the last seven years.”

He became a minority owner of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) in April 2024 and has been spotted at several of their events, including one in Newcastle last November.

BKFC hosted their biggest event to date, KnuckleMania V, in January, and McGregor told the promotion’s founder David Feldman to ‘make a date’ for his bare knuckle debut against Jeremy Stephens, who had just beaten former UFC star Alvarez in the main event.