Conor McGregor has been backed for a return to boxing by a fighter he left bloodied during a sparring session.
Dylan Moran trained with the former two-weight UFC champion ahead of his January bout with Dustin Poirier.
And the Waterford native believes McGregor, whose only boxing bout was a 2017 defeat to Floyd Mayweather, is a talented boxer.
Moran told Sky Sports: "I wouldn't be surprised to see Conor back in the boxing ring, for sure.
"I've been in there with him, at Irish level, European level and world level. Conor has given it to me as much as anyone. That speaks for itself.
"When you are a person of Conor's notes, you will have naysayers and doubters of the highest degree. Even if his boxing was the best, people would say it's useless.
"I've sparred him. I've been in there with him, and I'm a boxer. So my opinion is one to listen to."
Moran also opened up on the sparring sessions with the Dubliner, saying they were exciting for all in attendance.
He added: "The sparring was exciting stuff. I did what was asked of me. At the end, people would be clapping because it was exciting to watch.
"You can read him - when he counter-punches you can see that he's an MMA fighter. But he can switch it up and act like a professional boxer on the inside.
"The power is there. Obviously I'd heard about it, watched his knockouts, seen his fights. I was interested in what it would be like to feel. It's for real.
"In one of the spars he was landing his left hand and I told myself to keep my hands up."
McGregor will face Poirier for a third time on July 10 after suffering a shock loss in their rematch at the start of the year.
But the trilogy bout was almost cancelled after a row erupted on social media between the Dubliner and the American.
UFC President Dana White told TSN: "There was a lot of chance that was going to fall apart. I saw some conspiracy theorists saying that was done to promote the fight - absolutely none of that was done to promote the fight, I can assure you of that.
"We had to go back and forth; we've been doing this for 20 years and this is what we do, we get it done."
