A failed marriage, alcoholism and depression

children, and found it hard to cope with me. By the age of seven I’d been in and out of foster care, then ended up in a care home.

“I was the youngest kid there and that made me a target for bullying. night... and the very next day Conor signed with UFC.”

Rob, who has fought and trained in countries all over the world including the US, Brazil, Croatia and Sweden, later followed McGregor to UFC but never got the opportunity to fight the Irishman.

His most memorable fight was in 2015 when he became the first Scot to fight a UFC match on home soil, in front of an 11,000- strong crowd at Glasgow’s Hydro.

He won the match but lost the hefty winner’s bonus he had been set to receive after he jumped out of the cage and into the crowd.

In February last year, fans of Rob were shocked when he announced his retirement from MMA.

Rob fell into a deep depression, and turned to alcohol. He said: “I was suffering from anxiety, scared to leave the house and I couldn’t stop crying. I’d even wake up crying.

“My friends kept telling me I was the strongest person they knew, that I’d get through this. But I was in bits.”

Rob turned to his GP for help, and was referred to a counsellor. As he started to feel stronger, Rob slowly began to exercise again. In July last year, he announced his return to MMA, signing for Bellator.

He had his first fight in November, beating his opponent with a first round knock-out.

Now his biggest fighting goal is to help Bellator bring its first fight night to Scotland. But he has goals outside the MMA cage too. Last month, he was reunited with a social worker from his childhood, who invited him to speak to a group of youngsters with a similar background.

Rob said: “When I was living in care, I remember adults coming to talk to us about how we could turn our lives around, but these people hadn’t had childhoods like ours.