Conor McGregor's generosity revealed from keeping gym from closing, funding Irish amateur MMA team and secret donations

CONOR McGREGOR is the best paid sportsman in world – and he knows how to share it.

The biggest superstar in UFC history in May topped Forbes' list of highest-paid athletes in the last 12 months, with £128million earned.

He is known for his love of fast cars, bling watches and suave fashion sense.

But McGregor is also very generous with his cash, helping contribute towards local gyms, rising fighters and close friends.

In December 2020, McGregor's sister gym SBG Portarlington was forced to close with old training partner and friend Philip Mulpeter announcing the sad news.

But within two days, the former two-weight UFC champion stepped in to stop the gym from closure.

Then, at the end of June, he put forward a donation to pay for the entire Irish amateur MMA team to compete in the Youth World Championships.

McGregor, 32, also stepped up several times in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, including a £1m donation for PPE.

His training partner John Sheil told SunSport: "It's very easy when you're Conor, people look at you and tell you what you're supposed to do.

"But just look at it, the guy is donating and giving back. He's also always with his wife and kids."

McGregor's generosity even extends to his rivals, having donated $500,000 to a children's charity in Dustin Poirier's hometown of Louisiana.

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Sheil, 38, was involved in McGregor's training camps before fighting Nate Diaz, 36, and most recently Donald Cerrone, 38.

A year after acting as sparring partner in the lead up to the Diaz rematch in 2016, Sheil was hit with devastating news a day before a fight of his own.

As he weighed in on the scales out in Canada, he was told he had wolff parkinson white syndrome, a condition that causes the heart to beat abnormally fast for periods of time.

Sheil then set up a GoFundMe page within hours as he frantically panicked on what to do next.

But right after stepping off the plane, his medical costs were all covered.

And while the donation is still a mystery, he has a good idea of who was behind it.

Sheil said: "It was terrible, I was alone on the scales in Canada and I basically found out I had a heart problem and may never fight again.

'IT WASN'T A GUARDIAN ANGEL'

"I was like I need to get my heart fixed, I have to go back to my wife, I'm gonna f***ing die, what the f*** is going on.

"Within me getting off the plane, I basically got told, 'Take down that GoFundMe, everything is sorted'.

"I was like, 'Who sorted it?' And they said, 'Nobody is saying, it's just sorted'.

"It was literally two months before that I was away with Conor and John [Kavanagh] for two weeks.

"It definitely wasn't a guardian angel, it was someone in that circle who sorted it."

McGregor's life in the fast lane also extends to those around him, paying for accommodation and taking care of all his team while training away.

Sheil revealed: "He pulls out all the stops, he goes above and beyond. With Cerrone when he was coming back, he went hell for leather. 

"We was also a part of the Diaz 2 camp in Vegas when he brought his whole team over for 12 weeks.

"The spars were incredibly hard, every night we came home and more than one occasion during that camp I got a personal thanks from Conor through text messages, phone calls.

"When I was over there, I'm a big bike fan, for the whole camp I was on a Harley Davidson, I don't know who paid for it, but you can use your imagination."

McGregor returns to the cage for a trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier on Saturday, the man he beat in 2014 but lost to in a rematch in January,

Sheil was not part of the training camp, but has backed his man 5,000 miles away at home in Ireland.

He said:"I think he's going to stop him in the second round. A KO or TKO late in the second round, that's just how I think it's going to go."

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