Who is Luke Keeler, the Irish champion boxer who Conor McGregor ‘has agreed’ to fight?
THE world is awaiting the return of Conor McGregor.
It’s almost a year since the MMA star’s emphatic defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 – but reports suggest that he might be about to step into a boxing ring with Luke Keeler.
Who is Luke Keeler?
KEELER is a middleweight boxer from Dublin who is a current Irish champion.
Born in 1987, he is a year old than McGregor at 32 and made his pro debut back in 2013.
He beat Conrad Cummings in April 2018 for the WBO European middleweight crown and currently holds that belt after retaining it against the same opponent this March.
Keeler has a pro record of 17-2-1 from 20 fights, with five of his wins coming by way of knockout.
On a possible clash with McGregor – who has only fought once in a boxing ring against Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2017 – Keeler is keen to get the all-Irish showdown made.
He told LadBible: “It’d be a huge fight, a huge fight for Dublin because he’s losing everyone’s respect and a lot of people would pay to see him beaten.
“I’m not getting my hopes up, but look, it’s a possibility. His ego is so big, and gets that much abuse at home in Dublin, you know? It’s possible.”
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Has Conor McGregor agreed to fight him?
THERE is no official bout between Keeler and McGregor agreed – yet.
The middleweight star took to Twitter after seeing footage of Notorious allegedly striking a man in a Dublin bar.
He wrote: “Sad to see @TheNotoriousMMA stoop so low, did the same to a friend of mine couple of years ago and still walking around acting the gangster, I’d be happy to put him in his place if he had the balls to step in a ring again?”
McGregor doesn’t appear to have taken the call-out too well though – and Keeler alleges that the MMA star personally rang him to arrange a showdown.
Keeler told IrishBoxing.com: “I don’t want to get into it too much, but I know he wasn’t happy about the call out. He is not happy.
“The fight community in Ireland is small enough and Crumlin isn’t too far from Ballyfermot- and I heard he wasn’t happy with the timing of it.
“He rang me and we had a few words. I told him the fight was there to be made and he was all for it. He agreed to fight over the phone.”