Conor McGregor Becomes Parimatch Brand Ambassador

Conor McGregor has appeared in a bizarre ad featuring him flying through the air and squaring up against a cat. The ad is the official announcement of McGregor’s inauguration as a brand ambassador.

Conor McGregor Features in Bizarre Parimatch Ad

Former UFC champion and would-be boxer Conor McGregor appeared on a new ad commissioned by Parimatch, a Cyprus-based* sport betting platform, eliciting a mixed response from the audience.

In the commercial, McGregor first appears to be flying through the air with his tongue sticking out and arms held upward as winners do in the ring. Then the action shifts in a room where he squares up against a cat.

During that time McGregor wears paint reminiscent of Batman supervillain The Joker’s. The commercial continues in a similarly incongruous fashion, with yellow flamingos in the room of an abandoned industrial building.

There’s also a 16-bit reference to McGregor’s fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr., which took place in 2017 in Las Vegas and was the MMA’s biggest pay-per-view event to date.

Mixed Reception in Social Media

Users described the ad as ‘cringe-worthy,’ and ‘garbage,’ but there were those who voiced positive sentiments as well.

One user wrote in Russian that McGregor was ready to star in a movie while another noted that the fighter was clearly a visionary insofar as his own financial well-being was concerned.

That last user also noted that he would much rather have the McGregor who became ‘division 2 champ’ over the new one. To dissipate some of the tension, Parimatch CEO Sergey Portnov has released a statement:

“It is impossible to put Conor’s personality into words, and also impossible to remain indifferent to him. In his advertising campaign for Parimatch, he was true to himself — unpredictable and brutal, but always reliable and charged to win.”

A Match Made in Heaven

McGregor has indeed positioned himself well with Parimatch. The fighter will now have a two-year endorsement deal with the platform across the CIS region which is focused on Russian speakers for the most part.

#HOT! @TheNotoriousMMA is FIRED UP TO WIN! pic.twitter.com/w7sgJ3YjPP

— Parimatch (@ParimatchGlobal) November 8, 2019

In fact, McGregor is one of Parimatch’s long-line of notable brand ambassadors, including Petr Yan, Mike Tyson, Alexey Oleynik, and others. Parimatch is an official UFC betting partner in the CIS, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as Europe – bar the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Meanwhile, McGregor is yet to make a comeback in UFC, something he has considered for a while. In fact, he is supposed to fight on January 18, 2020 in the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, but no opponent has been chosen as of this moment.

McGregor has been a divisive figure and many cheered when he lost to Nurmagomedov in 2017 and announced withdrawal from fighting competitions. However, it only lasted a short while, and the fighter announced a long-coming return.

In the meantime, he punched an elderly man in a Dublin pub after the latter had turned down a drink McGregor offered him.

Edit: A previous version of the article stated Parimatch was based in Russia – this is not correct. The company is Cyprus-based. We apologise.