Before becoming the world's highest-paid athlete, Conor McGregor was a plumber who lived with his parents. According to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2021/05/12/the-worlds-10-highest-paid-athletes-conor-mcgregor-leads-a-group-of-sports-stars-unfazed-by-the-pandemic/?sh=38536a6326f4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes</a>, even though McGregor participated in just one fight last year, he was still the world's highest-paid sporting star, earning a whopping $180 million. But his life was very different 14 years ago when he was working as a plumber and living on weekly benefit checks of $235. <img class="wp-image-1263108655" src="https://img.vt.co/2021/05/Conor-2.jpg" alt="Conor McGregor." width="663" height="424" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Alamy / Action Plus Sports Images]] Before he entered the world of boxing, he was a huge soccer fan and supported Manchester United. But a run-in with school bullies was to change his life forever, and he began to toughen up physically when he was just 12 years old. "Things like this happened a few times," he told <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKXc462lsS0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MMA TV</a> in 2015. "So I thought, 'F*** this, I am going to go and train'. So if someone says something, then they're going to know about it - that's how I started." McGregor joined Dublin's Crumlin Boxing Club, and it was there that he met and befriended MMA fighter Tom Egan. The pair went on to watch MMA fights together whenever they weren't at school, attempting the moves of the athletes they watched in their back yards. Then, when he was 17 years old, Conor trained as a plumber, but this was to be short-lived before he found fame in the fighting world. <img class="wp-image-1263108652" src="https://img.vt.co/2021/05/Conor-1.jpg" alt="Conor McGregor." width="666" height="426" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Alamy / PA Images]] However, his journey into the world of MMA was not plain sailing, and he lost two of his first six fights and won the other four by TKO - none of which suggested he would become a future champion. But he soon proved himself by winning eight Irish MMA victories, which is what brought him to the attention of UFC's Dana White and led to his debut UFC fight in Stockholm, Sweden. McGregor used a welfare cheque to pay for the flight to Sweeden where he went on to knock out one-time Ultimate Fighter competitor Marcus Brimmage in one round, earning him $60k for Knockout Of The Night. From then on, he went from strength to strength to become the first man to hold two UFC World titles at the same time in different weight classes. It's also worth noting that McGregor is an impressive businessman, and while he earned $180 million last year, only $20 million of that came from his fighting career. <h6>Featured image credit: Alamy / PA Images</h6>

Conor McGregor was a plumber living with parents before becoming world's highest-paid athlete

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