Conor McGregor may have broken UFC rule after boasting of $1million bet win

The Irishman placed a whopping bet on the UFC 307 main event, which saw Alex Pereira successfully defend his light-heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree Jr

Conor McGregor could land himself in hot water with the UFC after the Irishman placed a whopping $1million bet on the UFC 307 main event between Alex Pereira and Khalil Rountree Jr.

'Poatan' went on to brutally knock Rountree out in the fourth-round to successfully defend his light-heavyweight title at the Delta Centre in Salt Lake City. The American challenger provided the toughest test yet faced by the champion, but as the bout went into the championship rounds, a gassed and bloodied Rountree could only take so much punishment. That said, the 34-year-old showed real heart to stay in the contest with one of the best fighters in the world.

Immediately after the main event, Pereira played down talk of an immediate move to middleweight or heavyweight after racking up his third successful title defence at 205. “We saw that Dricus is going to be fighting Sean Strickland. He’s a training partner of mine so I don’t want to get in his way,” he said. “I could go up to heavyweight but this division is great, I feel great with this weight cut and this is where I’m at.”

The win has not only raised the Brazilian's superstar status tenfold, but it also reportedly appears to have made McGregor - a former two-division champion in the UFC - an incredible amount of money. However, despite bragging about his huge win, the Irishman could find himself in a spot of bother as he could be in breach of the UFC’s rules against fighters betting.

The 36-year-old informed his fans on X - formerly known as Twitter - moments before the main event, that he was going to place a huge $1million bet on either fighter to get knocked out in the bout as he believed that the fight wouldn't last five rounds.

On Monday, McGregor took to social media to show off his bet slip, stating: “Another one in the bank! Still on a roll unbeaten at @Duelbits! I placed this bet last minute as the fighters made their walk out lol. I could not pick a winner right up to the bout but just knew a KO was going to occur one way or the other with these two fighters facing off, so that was my bet! A mili on a KO be either fighter at 1/5. Good bet! A solid $200k return! NICE!!!”

Despite going on to quickly delete the post, the Irishman did upload the wager slip on his official Instagram account. Until October 2022, there weren't any rules against fighters gambling on fights. That said, because of an ongoing incident with former coach, James Krause, the promotion changed their athlete conduct policy.

The UFC released a memo to their fighters and managers stating that athletes are now prohibited from gambling on any UFC fight, regardless of if they are involved or not. Despite that, fighters are still allowed to be sponsored by gambling companies but cannot bet at all.

McGregor hasn't fought since suffering a brutal leg injury in his defeat to Dustin Poirier in 2021. The Irishman was set to fight Michael Chandler at UFC 303 earlier this year, but was forced to pull out of the contest due to an injury.. Following his withdrawal, Chandler will now take on Charles Oliveira at UFC 309 in November.

The Irish MMA star still hopes to settle his beef with Chandler, but UFC boss Dana White has insisted no decision has been made about his next opponent. “I’d like it to be Chandler,” McGregor said about his UFC comeback ahead of Anthony Joshua’s loss to Daniel Dubois last month. “I’d like that to be squared away. I wish him well against Oliveira, but let’s see how it goes.”