Ireland’s first UFC star pens emotional good luck message to Conor McGregor

Tom Egan has sent Conor McGregor a compelling good luck message ahead of his fight with Floyd Mayweather.

The Newbridge man became Ireland's first UFC star in 2009 and Conor McGregor has said that the 29-year-old's debut and progress in the UFC was a huge inspiration to him in his early days. Egan's debut coincided with the UFC’s inaugural visit to Dublin, at UFC 93. Conor McGregor was watching Egan's fight in Dublin in 2009, and he, along with many of Ireland's other budding UFC stars at the time such as Cathal Pendred, Neil Seery and Patrick Holohan were inspired by the trail blazed by Egan. The 29-year-old is a long-term friend of McGregor having first met him in High School. Egan took to Instagram on Tuesday night to pen a powerful good luck message to McGregor ahead of his heavily billed and eagerly anticipated fight with Floyd Mayweather. https://www.instagram.com/p/BV05FYZgX9O/?taken-by=teameganmma Egan claimed in 2014 on The MMA Hour that McGregor was always a motivator, an ambitious man who created a positive attitude at training. "Conor’s always been somebody who’s very driven and very confident," he said. "Even at a time when I was busy fighting and Conor wasn’t as busy, he was always motivating me. He was always giving me a confidence boost, and he was always telling me that I could do whatever I wanted to do, so I don’t know if that would necessarily be something I would say. Egan went on to emphasise the one-track mind that Conor McGregor always possessed, and claimed that he would've gone on to big things no matter what influences he had. Egan was none-the-less, humbled, to have been mentioned as an inspiration to McGregor. "I’m pretty sure Conor would have done whatever he was going to do in a very big way no matter what because he’s got such a big personality. Not a lot of people would be able to contain that big personality he has. But even if I could be mentioned in the same sentence, that Conor McGregor got the inspiration to do something like this to achieve what he achieved, I’m blessed to hear that. But I think Conor would have gone in a good direction no matter what." Egan previously mentioned how he and McGregor lifted weights together and spent countless hours talking about Martial Arts.