Conor McGregor, one of the most electric UFC fighters in MMA history, just announced his retirement on Twitter. Needless to say, everyone is a bit surprised.
This retirement announcement is more than a little strange considering that Conor’s still the featherweight champion of UFC. Some people, including us, believe that he’s just joking. After all, Conor McGregor is far from the most serious person to ever step into the Octagon.
https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/722492455732584448
Update 4/25/2016
Conor McGregor is officially out of retirement and will be on the fight card for UFC 200.
Update 4/21/2016
Conor McGregor just wrote a lengthy Facebook post describing his actions. Read them below:
I am just trying to do my job and fight here.
I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote.
I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting.
There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.
50 world tours, 200 press conferences, 1 million interviews, 2 million photo shoots, and at the end of it all I’m left looking down the barrel of a lens, staring defeat in the face, thinking of nothing but my incorrect fight preparation. And the many distractions that led to this.
Nothing else was going through my mind.
It is time to go back and live the life that got me this life.
Sitting in a car on the way to some dump in Connecticut or somewhere, to speak to Tim and Suzie on the nobody gives a fuck morning show did not get me this life.
Talking to some lady that deep down doesn’t give a fuck about what I’m doing, but just wants some sound bites so she can maybe get her little tight ass a nice raise, and I’m cool with that too, I’ve been giving you all raises. But I need to focus on me now.
I’m coming for my revenge here.
I flew an entire team to Portugal and to Iceland to make my adjustments in preparation and fix my errors I made with the weight and the cardio prep.
With the right adjustments and the right focus, I will finish what I started in that last fight.
I will not do this if I am back on the road handing out flyers again.
I will always play the game and play it better than anybody, but just for this one, where I am coming off a loss, I asked for some leeway where I can just train and focus. I did not shut down all media requests. I simply wanted a slight adjustment.
But it was denied.
There had been 10 million dollars allocated for the promotion of this event is what they told me.
So as a gesture of good will, I went and not only saved that 10 million dollars in promotion money, I then went and tripled it for them.
And all with one tweet.
Keep that 10 mill to promote the other bums that need it. My shows are good.
I must isolate myself now.
I am facing a taller, longer and heavier man. I need to prepare correctly this time.
I can not dance for you this time.
It is time for the other monkeys to dance. I’ve danced us all the way here.
Nate’s little mush head looks good up on that stage these days. Stuff him in front of the camera for it.
He came in with no shit to do that last one. I’d already done press conferences, interviews and shot the ads before RDA pulled out.
Maybe I’ll hit Cabo this time and skull some shots pre-fight with no obligation.
I’m doing what I need for me now.
It is time to be selfish with my training again. It is the only way.
I feel the $400million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside 8 months, is enough to get me this slight leeway.
I am still ready to go for UFC 200.
I will offer, like I already did, to fly to New York for the big press conference that was scheduled, and then I will go back into training. With no distractions.
If this is not enough or they feel I have not deserved to sit this promotion run out this one time, well then I don’t know what to say.
For the record also –
For USADA and for the UFC and my contract stipulations –
I AM NOT RETIRED.
Update 4/20/2016
UFC President Dana White announced Tuesday (04/19) that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has been pulled from his UFC 200 main event against Nate Diaz on July 9. The UFC is currently working on a new main event for the card, which will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Nate Diaz, McGregor’s planned opponent at UFC 200, also poked fun at McGregor’s bombshell by announcing his own retirement.
https://twitter.com/NateDiaz209/status/722514064576917505
Why Did Conor Retire?
There are a couple of theories as to why Conor retired, but before we get into some of the fan theories let’s start with what we know. Dana White appeared on SportsCenter at 8 PM last night and announced that Conor had been pulled from the UFC 200 because he refused to pause his training and fly to Vegas for the press conference.
“Well, what’s happened is, we’ve pulled Conor McGregor from UFC 200, and we’re working on other fights right now. Conor did not want to come to Las Vegas [this week] to film the commercial or be a part of any of the marketing that we have. He’s in Iceland training and [not participating in the marketing] is not possible. This has only happened one other time in UFC history.
Nick Diaz didn’t show up for his press conference for his fight with Georges St-Pierre and I pulled Nick Diaz from the fight. We’ve had other instances like this where guys didn’t want to do the press conference, [but] you have to. You have to do the press conference, so Conor put out that tweet. Is Conor McGregor retiring? Only he could answer that question.”
That actually seems perfectly reasonable and believable. But now that we’ve put that out into the air, here are a couple of other things that might have caused Conor to retire.
Last week, Conor was sitting ringside to watch his Irish teammate Charlie Ward fight Joao Carvalho. During that match, Joao received numerous shots to the head, lost, and then complained afterwards that he wasn’t feeling well. Joao was rushed to the hospital. He later died.
Conor was admittedly very shaken up by the incident and spoke publicly about his feelings, his condolences, and the importance of safety in MMA.
“To see a young man doing what he loves, competing for a chance at a better life, and then to have it taken away is truly heartbreaking. We are just men and women doing something we love in the hope of a better life for ourselves and our families.
Nobody involved in combat sports of any kind wants to see this. It is such a rare occurrence that I don’t know how to take this.
My condolences go out to Joao’s family and his team. Their man was a hell of a fighter and will be sorely missed by all. Combat sport is a crazy game and with the recent incident in boxing and now this in MMA, it is a sad time to be a fighter and a fight fan.
It is easy for those on the outside to criticise our way of living, but for the millions of people around the world who have had their lives, their health, their fitness and their mental strength all changed for the better through combat, this is truly a bitter pill to swallow. We have lost one of us.
I hope we remember Joao as a champion, who pursued his dream doing what he loved, and show him the eternal respect and admiration he deserves.”
Will Conor Come Out Of Retirement?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is definitely. The more that we read, the more that we believe the only reason Conor “retired” is because he didn’t want to break camp to come to Las Vegas for the promotion. He’s a big name, but Conor’s about to learn that the biggest name if MMA is Dana White.
Here’s what Dana told Colin Cowherd on a radio interview:
Our relationship isn’t damaged at all,” White said. “…I’m not even mad a little bit. I had pretty smooth day…. When Conor went out, 10 other people called asking to go in. It’s going to be a massive event. It’s still a big fight. No, I’m not mad at all.
Yeah, if he called me after this interview, we would probably still do it. The problem with this whole thing is you have to be here to promote your fight and you have to shoot this commercial. We’re spending $10 million in promotion for UFC 200, and all that money is motion. You can’t do this. I don’t care who you are, or how big you are, you can’t do this.
Again, this is probably hogwash. Conor’s at the top of his game, has tens of millions left to make, and even just posted a photo last night that he’s training in Iceland.
