This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's August 21 Fighting Issue. Subscribe today!
Just before Christmas, the drug dealers hanging on a north Dublin corner saw Conor McGregor's white BMW turn down their dead-end road.
They couldn't believe it. Sheriff Street was among the worst streets in the city, blocked off at one end, the area controlled by one of the two local gangs. The Hutch family ran this part of the north side, while the Kinahans operated mainly in the neighborhoods south of the river dividing the town. Some of the Kinahan bosses and foot soldiers lived in Crumlin, where McGregor grew up.