Ebanie Bridges addresses persistent Conor McGregor rumours

The relationship between Aussie boxer Ebanie Bridges and UFC great Conor McGregor continues to make headlines.

Australian boxer Ebanie Bridges has addressed the rumours that continue to swirl about her friendship with UFC great Conor McGregor.

Former bantamweight world champion Bridges and Irishman McGregor struck up a friendship after meeting at a bout featuring Irish boxer Katie Taylor in May last year.

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The duo has since been snapped together a number of times and regularly appear on each other’s social media accounts, predominantly through the Australian representing McGregor’s Forged Irish Stout beer brand.

Speculation over the nature of their friendship has been a regular talking point and not for the first time, 37-year-old Bridges bristled when asked about the situation.

“Yeah, it’s f**king annoying (that I have to defend our friendship) because it’s so clear to me,” Bridges told instantcasinos.com.

“Maybe I’m either really smart or I just think it’s common sense. I think (fans) have this little fantasy that we’re f**king and then they get excited about that.

Conor McGregor and Ebanie Bridges are regularly photographed together. Photo: Twitter

“I don’t know but that’s all I can think of. Because honestly if there was something going on, I feel like we wouldn’t be together in public if we were doing something like that.

“I wouldn’t be wearing that branded clothing all the time and having a Forged Irish Stout in my hand all the time. It’s clearly promotion.

“They want to think it up in their head for whatever reason, for their own little fantasies or to try and bring me down or to try and bring Conor down, because he has a lot of haters as well.

“But in the end, the people that are saying that, they’re just trying to spread rumours and make things up or make themselves excited.”

Bridges lost her IBF world title in December last year following an upset loss to Japan’s Miyo Yoshida in San Francicso.

McGregor, 35, who has been out of the Octagon for three years and recently promoted his role in a remake of Road House with Jake Gyllenhaal, is preparing to face Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in June.

It's not too hard to see why the rumours persist. Photos: Twitter

Bridges lost her IBF bantamweight title in December last year. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Bridges has defended her relationship with McGregor a number of times in the past, with social media trolls often commenting cruelly on their social posts together.

In November last year, the boxer who goes by the name Blonde Bomber stressed the obvious publicity generated by her public appearances alongside the Irishman.

“He uses me for clout really. He’s sponsoring me to get his brand out. That’s what sponsors do,” she said.

“We met at the AJ (Anthony Joshua) fight and I wore his brand there, because he’s using me to get his brand out. Otherwise he’d be wearing a stout shirt.

“But we work together because he knows – me and him – will get people talking about his brand.

“It’s not that I need him, but we both help each other out, we are both an asset to each other’s brands, we both help build each other, it’s not one-sided.

“They reached out to me, it wasn’t me chasing them.”