The launch of Irish UFC megastar Conor McGregor’s own-brand ‘Proper No. Twelve Whiskey’ in Russian has not gone down well with local MMA veteran Alexander Shlemenko.
McGregor launched the tipple in Russia to much fanfare back in October, and his social media accounts have since been awash with people posing with bottles of the whiskey across the land.
That included one native of Omsk, Siberia, who goes by the Instagram name of Ritulya Krasatulya.
The eye-catching blonde shared a picture of herself earlier this week holding a bottle of McGregor’s whiskey in front of local ice hockey team Avangard Omsk's youth academy.
The snap was ‘liked’ by The Notorious and appeared on his Instagram stories shared with his 32.4 million followers.
It also led to KHL outfit Avangard inviting McGregor to visit the newly-opened academy that the blonde whiskey-lover was posing in front of.
But one man clearly not buying McGregor's whiskey wares is local MMA fighter and former Bellator middleweight champion Alexander ‘Storm’ Shlemenko, who has campaigned against the widespread sale of alcohol.
“It’s not very good for Avangard. It turns out that a bottle of whiskey is worth more than their honor,” he told news outlet Sport24.
“Do we associate Avangard with a bottle of whiskey or something? It seems to me it’s bad PR, especially against the background of a children’s hockey academy.”
The middleweight veteran, who boasts a record of 58 wins and 12 losses in his 15-year pro career, reserved even stronger censure for the blonde behind the picture, whose bio states she is a university post-graduate in the city.
“It’s absolute stupidity from the girl who took that photograph, she lacks education,” Shlemenko fumed.
“I don’t know if they sell Conor McGregor’s whiskey in Omsk, I don’t go to those types of shops. I hope not, but it’s difficult to say.
“Yesterday in Omsk there was a protest against craft beer stores [commonly found in apartment blocks]. The authorities reacted well, they support us. They always offer support, the main thing is citizens need it,” he added.
While Proper No. Twelve is clearly improper for Shlemenko, Russians appear to have been lapping it up, if McGregor’s social media accounts are anything to go by.
The Irishman has shared dozens of images of locals posing with the tipple, and even claimed on a promotional visit to Moscow in October that he had given Russian President Vladimir Putin a bottle of the whiskey when the pair famously met at the World Cup final in 2018.
With typical bravado, McGregor claimed that the whiskey had been tested by the Russian leader’s security detail, and that while he hadn’t had the chance to speak to Putin since then, he was “sure he did have a taste and enjoyed it.”
McGregor’s biggest Russian nemesis, UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, recently took a thinly-veiled dig at the Irishman's whiskey sales as well as his alleged legal woes.
"People who wear flags say that they represent their native land," the Dagestani replied when he was asked why he didn’t take to the octagon with the Russian tricolor.
"But, unlike them, I don't rape women, don't beat old people, don't tell people to drink alcohol," he added scathingly.
Also on rt.com 'I don't hit old people': Khabib Nurmagomedov slams Conor McGregor as he explains why he doesn't carry the Russian flag (VIDEO)Shlemenko, meanwhile, announced this week that he would be returning to the cage in Ekaterinburg on December 12, where he will face US veteran Louis ‘Handgunz’ Taylor under the banner of the Russian Cagefighting Championship.