Major retailers in UK and Ireland pull products associated with Conor McGregor

Major retailers across the UK and Ireland are to stop selling alcoholic drinks associated with Irish fighter Conor McGregor.

The decision by Tesco, Musgrave and the BWG Group came after a woman who said Mr McGregor raped her won a civil claim for damages against him.

Nikita Hand, who accused the sportsman of raping her in a Dublin hotel in December 2018, won her claim against him for damages in a case at the High Court in the Irish capital.

In a statement, a spokesman for Musgrave said: “Musgrave can confirm these products are no longer available to our store network.”

The network includes SuperValu, Centra, Daybreak and Mace.

A Tesco spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are removing Proper No Twelve Whiskey from sale in Tesco stores and online.”

A spokesperson for BWG Group said: “The products are no longer listed for distribution across our network of Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis and XL stores, including Appleby Westward which operates over 300 Spar stores in the south west of England.”

It is understood that other retail outlets including Costcutter and Carry Out will also stop stocking products linked to Mr McGregor.

He and some of his business partners sold their majority stake in the Proper Number Twelve Irish whiskey brand.

He was reported to have been paid more than £103 million from the sale to Proximo Spirits in 2021.

On Monday, a popular video game developer decided to pull content featuring the MMA fighter.

The Irish athlete has featured in multiple video games, including voice-acting a character bearing his likeness in additional downloadable content in the Hitman series.

Mr McGregor’s character featured as a target for the player-controlled assassin in the game.

IO Interactive, the Danish developer and publisher of Hitman, said in a statement: “In light of the recent court ruling regarding Conor McGregor, IO Interactive has made the decision to cease its collaboration with the athlete, effective immediately.

“We take this matter very seriously and cannot ignore its implications.

“Consequently, we will begin removing all content featuring Mr McGregor from our storefronts starting today.”

Last Friday, the High Court jury awarded damages amounting to 248,603.60 euros (around £206,000) to Ms Hand.

Mr McGregor made no comment as he left court but later posted on social media that he intended to appeal against the decision.