Nate Kelly has hailed Conor McGregor for 'opening the door' to the UFC for Irish fighters.

Kelly considers the 'Notorious' as one of his biggest fans ahead of his big Professional Fighters League debut at the 3Arena on December 8.

He remembers how McGregor's UFC breakthrough led to a huge rise in participation in MMA disciplines.

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"When I was growing up everyone was playing football or doing different sports, but for me it was always kickboxing and MMA," he said.

"At the time Conor McGregor hadn't really broken through and there were no real big stars in the UFC around Ireland especially.

"It was a very small sport and people would be looking at you wondering, what the hell is this lad doing?

"I don't know, even back then when I didn't know you could make a career out of it, I just trained simply for the fact that I loved training.

"I fought because I loved to fight, I loved the competition, I loved the feeling when you are fighting.

"It's something that you can't explain, but it's almost like an addiction. That adrenaline, the butterflies and everything, it's something you can't buy."

Then came McGregor's breakthrough, when he moved from Cage Warriors to UFC in 2013.

"Conor opened the door for everybody to come into Irish martial arts," Kelly said. "He raised the bar for everybody here.

"He was like a rocketship taking off. Suddenly there were more people in the gyms, in the classes, and that only helped me because there were more people to train with. There are more eyes on the sport as well.

"He opened the door for a lot of people and I honestly do believe I will be the next big, big star from Ireland to raise the levels yet again."

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