Just hours before the case was set to move forward on April 15 in Dublin, Conor McGregor and Artem Lobov reached a settlement in their high-profile fight over Proper No. Twelve whiskey. The agreement was announced in Ireland’s High Court, where Lobov had been pursuing a claim tied to the brand’s massive sale. For American fight fans, the case always carried extra intrigue because it involved one of the few people from McGregor’s old SBG Ireland inner circle willing to challenge him publicly and in court.
The dispute dated back to 2017. Lobov claimed he helped spark the idea for McGregor to launch his own whiskey label, opened talks with a distillery, and played a meaningful role in getting the business off the ground. According to Lobov, that work came with an oral agreement for a 5 percent stake. McGregor denied any such deal existed.
The money at the center of the case was no small matter. In 2021, Proper No. Twelve was sold to Proximo Spirits, the company behind Jose Cuervo, in a deal reported to be worth up to $600 million. Estimates at the time suggested McGregor personally cleared well over $100 million. Lobov later went to court seeking roughly $30 million, and the case had been delayed multiple times before finally nearing a substantive hearing this week.
From a U.S. media perspective, this was more than a business lawsuit. It was another chapter in the unraveling of McGregor’s once-tight team, and another reminder that his name still commands headlines even outside the cage. Lobov, meanwhile, has long argued he was cut out of a success story he helped build, making the case a personal one as much as a financial one.
Once the settlement was announced, Lobov said only that he was satisfied with the outcome. The financial terms remain private, and attention now shifts to whether this finally closes one of the most bitter off-canvas disputes connected to McGregor’s career.