Conor McGregor has opened up on announcing his retirement.
Following UFC 250, McGregor hopped on his Twitter account and claimed he is retiring from MMA competition. The “Notorious” one had been eager to return to the Octagon to fight the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje. He even expressed interest in moving up to welterweight to make a run at the 170-pound title. Ultimately, McGregor isn’t satisfied with his options at the moment.
Conor McGregor Dishes On Retirement
Speaking to ESPN, McGregor went into detail on coming to his decision to retire.
“The game just does not excite me, and that’s that,” McGregor said. “All this waiting around. There’s nothing happening. I’m going through opponent options, and there’s nothing really there at the minute. There’s nothing that’s exciting me.
“They should have just kept the ball rolling. I mean, why are they pushing [Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje] back to September? You know what’s going to happen in September, something else is going to happen in September, and that’s not going to happen. I laid out a plan and a method that was the right move, the right methods to go with. And they always want to balk at that and not make it happen or just drag it on. Whatever I say, they want to go against it to show some kind of power. They should have just done the fight — me and Justin for the interim title — and just kept the ball rolling.”
This isn’t the first time McGregor has claimed to be walking away from the sport of MMA. Back in 2019, he claimed he was done fighting. UFC president Dana White wasn’t buying it and he was correct. McGregor ended up returning in Jan. 2020, stopping Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone via first-round TKO. The bout only lasted 40 seconds.
There was much talk from team McGregor about how motivated the former UFC “champ-champ” was. Apparently, that motivation has gone out the window in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. McGregor feels things are at a standstill and it’s clear he doesn’t want to wait for the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje.
On May 9, Gaethje defeated Tony Ferguson to capture the interim UFC lightweight gold. Nurmagomedov was initially willing to return in July to fight Gaethje in a title unification bout. That plan has been pushed back to September as the health of Nurmagomedov’s father has deteriorated.
