Conor McGregor is the biggest star in UFC history, but the Irishman’s journey to the sport’s biggest promotion wasn’t particularly straightforward.<\/p>\n
Long before he was headlining record-shattering UFC pay-per-views, he was struggling to earn a spot on the crowded UFC featherweight roster. In fact, he was initially denied a spot with the promotion flat-out.<\/p>\n
In a Friday Instagram post, McGregor’s long-time head coach John Kavanagh reflected on the difficult they had getting the Irish superstar in front of UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby. Kavanagh shared a piece of correspondence between Shelby and Haraldur Nelson, McGregor’s former representation. In this correspondence, Nelson was attempting to get McGregor a spot in the UFC featherweight division, but Shelby rejecting the idea, explaining that there was no space on the featherweight roster with so many lightweights moving down a weight class at the time.<\/p>\n
If he only knew at the time how valuable McGregor would end up being for the company…<\/p>\n
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