Ex-UFC fighter forgets Conor McGregor as he narrates his whiskey business story - 'Celebrities have only brought out vodka and sh*t'
Conor McGregor's Proper No. 12 whiskey is undoubtedly the most popular liquor brand linked to an MMA fighter. However, former UFC heavyweight Josh Barnett seemingly forgot to mention McGregor's company while discussing his own whiskey story.
Barnett teamed up with the award-winning Sespe Creek Distillery in 2019 to create the Warmaster bourbon. According to the former UFC, Pride, Strikeforce and Pancreas fighter, he was already on the lookout for distilleries when he was contacted by Sespe Creek.
The idea of a whiskey brand seemingly appealed to Barnett as the market was previously untapped by celebrities. However, 'The Warmaster' forgot to mention Conor McGregor's Proper No. 12 whiskey. The 45-year-old recently stated on the El Segundo podcast:
"I've been doing this since 2019. Surprisingly, when they reached out to me, I was already trying to create inroads with different distilleries because I wanted to produce a whiskey on market. You know, celebrities had put out booze before but it was always vodka and some sh*t and they were pretty much just white labeling stuff where someone would make all the juice and then you would just put your label on."
Catch Josh Barnett's comments below:
When Josh Barnett credited Conor McGregor's Proper No. 12 for paving the way
Conor McGregor launched Proper No. 12 in 2018, a year before Josh Barnett met David Brandt, Ph.D., Founder and Distiller of Sespe Creek Distiller. 'The Notorious' would go on to sell a majority stake in his whiskey brand to Proximo Spirits for a whopping $600 million in 2021.
Barnett once thanked McGregor for paving the way for fighters to venture into the liquor business. According to 'The Warmaster', it wasn't exactly about copying McGregor but realizing that fighters have a general liking for whiskey. The former UFC heavyweight previously told The Bourbon Review:
“Well, honestly I have to thank the idea that Conor McGregor managed to branch off into spirits. It wasn’t the matter of trying to do something like him it was just the idea that ‘hey, by the way, professional fighters drink and they like whiskey, and are also involved with things outside of fighting’ and especially for me, as someone who has been drinking Whiskey for a long time, I have always wanted to put out my own Whiskey into the world. Teaming up with Sespe has given me the opportunity to do so with people who care so much about the process and also to have their very unique way of approaching it… it’s forward-thinking.”
Heavyweight champion Josh Barnett and Sespe Creek Distillery founder David Brandt join us live tonight (THURS) here this @Bourbonblog Twitter stream at 8 pm ET to talk about their new award-winning Warmaster Mesquite-Smoked #Bourbon @sespe_creek @JoshLBarnett https://t.co/1hy8hOgBiM