CONOR MCGREGOR’S conditioning coach has revealed the story behind Cristiano Ronaldo inviting the UFC superstar to Jennifer Lopez’s birthday party in Las Vegas.
McGregor, fiancee Dee Devlin, trainer Jon Kavanagh, his wife, UFC fighter Dillon Danis and conditioning coach Colin Byrne all attended the event at Caesars Palace back in 2016 before the Irishman’s rematch with Nate Diaz.
McGregor and his team arrived at Lopez’s birthday after football star Ronaldo came down to his gym and invited himGetty Images – Getty
And Byrne has now opened up about how they ended up going to the popstar turned actor’s birthday bash.
He told ESPN: “We’re in Vegas training for the second [Nate] Diaz fight in 2016. Conor gets a message from [soccer star] Cristiano Ronaldo, and Ronaldo comes down to the gym.
“Conor said to him, ‘What are you doing in Las Vegas?’ Ronaldo says, ‘I’m going to Jennifer Lopez’s birthday party tonight.’
“And then Conor just says jokingly, ‘Can we go?’ And Ronaldo says, ‘Sure, no problem.’ Then he bounced and sent Conor a text to where it was.
Byrne continued: “We get to the hotel, and inside Caesars Palace there’s another private hotel, and it’s where she has her suite.
“We go to the concierge, but he won’t let us in. All of a sudden, the lift opens up and this guy comes out in a suit.
“He’s like, ‘Hey, Conor! Where are you going, man?’ Conor said, ‘I’m going to Jennifer Lopez’s birthday party.’ The guy says, ‘OK, come with me.’
“We get in the elevator, it goes up and the doors open. We walk out, and it’s her apartment. On the wall, it says ‘J.Lo’ in flowers. It’s quiet. There’s six of us in her house. We’re like, what do we do now? We started walking.
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“There were about eight people on an L-shaped sofa, and one of them was Jennifer Lopez. But there’s no sign of Ronaldo — and we weren’t invited.
“Conor is going, ‘What do you think I should do?’ We were like, ‘You better go up and say hello.’ Conor’s like, ‘I don’t know if she knows me.’
“He waves, and she’s like, ‘Oh my god, Conor!’ She jumps up, grabs him by the hand and runs out with him toward the patio.
“On the patio, there’s a whole dance thing going on. There’s a deejay. Fat Joe is there. Ronaldo is out there.
“It was just absolutely brilliant. And she was such a pleasure. Conor got a selfie with her. I didn’t.
“At the end of the evening, we were gonna leave. Conor wanted to train. It was one of the only times where I was like, ‘Can we stay a little bit longer?’
“Usually, I’m on him like, ‘Let’s go, we’ve gotta get out of here, we’ve gotta train in the morning.’
“J.Lo was like, ‘Hey Conor, just hang on. My band is gonna play some songs.’
“They had her band with a keyboard in the sitting room. We stayed for two songs. I would have stayed all night. It was one of the best experiences ever.”
McGregor is set to make his return to the Octagon in 2023, after recovery from his horrific broken leg suffered against Dustin Poirier has taken longer than expected.
And he has been tipped to face off against Michael Chandler.