Conor McGregor being crowned RTE Sportsperson of the Year divided opinion on this day eight years ago
Conor McGregor has won just one fight since being crowned RTE Sportsperson of the Year eight years ago
Eight years ago today marks the day Conor McGregor was crowned RTE's Sportsperson of the Year for 2016. The UFC fighter joined a list that includes the likes of Katie Taylor, Johnny Sexton, Roy Keane, Rory McIlroy and Brian O'Driscoll.
McGregor fought three times in 2016 - three more times than he has fought in the past three and a half years - and was at the peak of his powers in the UFC at the time. His first fight of that year saw him suffer his first UFC loss as Nate Diaz submitted him with a rear-naked choke at UFC 196 in March.
The Dubliner avenged the defeat just months later when he beat Diaz via majority decision after a bloody battle in what was the UFC's second event to be staged at the newly built T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on August 20. And less than three months later, McGregor made history by becoming the first fighter to hold two UFC belts simultaneously by stopping Eddie Alvarez in the second round of their lightweight contest at Madison Square Garden.
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His victory over Alvarez came exactly 11 months after he knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds to claim the featherweight belt. Brazilian Aldo came into the bout having not been beaten in almost a decade.
McGregor beat 11 other nominees to the RTE award, which was voted for online and by text by the public. They included Annalise Murphy and Paul O’Donovan, who both won silver medals at that year's Olympic Games, Jamie Heaslip and Carl Frampton.
Speaking via video link from Los Angeles after winning the award, McGregor said: "Thank you so much to the fans for voting for me for RTÉ's Sports Person of the Year.
"I'm extremely grateful and extremely blessed to have the support of my home country.
"Thank you RTÉ as well. I'm sorry I couldn't make the awards ceremony. You know I love to stick on a good suit and roll into these awards ceremonies and collect an award so I'm a little bit upset about that."
McGregor's award win unsurprisingly divided opinion at the time on social media and continued to do so for some time afterwards.
One tweet from the time read: "Conor McGregor named RTÉ Sportsperson of the Year. There's just so much wrong with that."
Another person said: "We will look back on this in years to come and wonder what sh**e the nation was smoking when this was voted on."
But not everyone agreed with that point of view. One post stated: "Bunch of clowns saying Conor McGregor didn't deserve the rte sportsperson of the year award. Who else has made history the way he has?"
Michael Conlan, who had won the award 12 months previously, tweeted: "Well deserved."
Someone else wrote: "Well deserved. It would have been a joke if he didn't get it well done."
Incredibly, McGregor has won just one fight since picking up the RTE award. He faced Floyd Mayweather in a boxing crossover match the following summer, losing via TKO in the tenth round before being submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov in their grudge match just over 13 months later.
It was 14 months after that until he was seen in the Octagon again when he returned with a dominant display against Donald Cerrone, stopping the American in 40 seconds.
However, the Covid pandemic hit shortly afterwards, meaning McGregor wouldn't fight again for a year. He suffered a second round knockout loss to Dustin Poirier, who he had defeated in 2014, and then suffered a broken leg in his trilogy fight with the same opponent the following July, losing as a result.
McGregor was due to return to the Octagon this year and had a June date to face Michael Chandler in Las Vegas, but he was forced to withdraw from the bout after breaking a toe in training. On Tuesday, he again claimed he would return to the UFC and said he was in talks to fight Logan Paul in an exhibition boxing match.
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