Plenty has changed for Conor McGregor, the world’s most famous fightin’ Irishman who isn’t stenciled on Notre Dame’s helmets. But one thing has remained constant during his ascension from Dublin plumber to tattooed MMA terror: His girlfriend, Dee Devlin, who’s been with him since 2008, the year of his first professional fight.

Devlin grew up quite literally down the road from McGregor’s hometown of Crumlin, in Walkinstown. This may explain why McGregor’s told two slightly different versions of how they met way back when — he’s variously described their first meeting as being at a friend’s party and a nightclub — but he’s consistently said their social circles overlapped prior to their official meeting. Whatever the circumstances of the get-together — McGregor said some e-flirting on now-defunct social media platform Bebo was involved — Devlin and McGregor quickly became an item, and she became an integral part of his rise to success.

“Every day since I started in this game, she’s supported me,” he told VIP Magazine in 2013. “She’d drive me to the gym, and she’d listen to all my dreams. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for her.”

McGregor “was already training when I met him,” Devlin said in the same interview, “so I really admired his dedication to that, too.

“He’s very funny,” she added. “He always keeps me entertained and makes me laugh.”

Their relationship has weathered a number of in- and out-of-ring changes. For starters, Devlin told VIP, she remembers worrying about one specific bit of damage most fighters get.

“When I first met him, though, he didn’t have cauliflower ears, and I remember thinking: ‘Oh God, what if he gets cauliflower ears, that would be terrible!’ He has them now and I don’t remember him without them.”

McGregor has always been honest about his financial reasons for entering such a rough lifestyle:

“I’m doing this to secure my family’s future and Dee’s future,” he told VIP. “One day, I want myself and Dee to be able to chill on a beach and not have any worry in the world.”

McGregor also took the step of incorporating Devlin — literally — into his career. He hired her as part of his organization, to, as he put it, “collect the cheques,” which means the pair get to travel together; she also accompanies him to his rigorous training sessions.

McGregor and Devlin expanded their duo on May 5, 2017, when their first son, Conor Jr., was born. They welcomed their second child, a daughter named Croia, in January 2019.

Devlin admitted it’s only gotten harder to watch McGregor head into the ring. “I find I’m more nervous now — the first time I went to see Conor fight, there was 50 people in a room, and I thought, ‘There’s no way you can be more nervous than this,’ but each time it’s just getting more and more nerve-wracking … Watching someone you care about getting in the ring — it definitely gets me in the gut.”

The next time Devlin will have to steel herself — and Conor Jr. and Croia — will be Jan. 18, when McGregor returns to the UFC ring for a welterweight bout against American MMA vet Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. The fight will be available on ESPN+.

At least we know he’s got a deep roster of supporters in the first row.