On Tuesday, GQ Magazine published a new interview with UFC 202 co-headliner Conor McGregor ahead of his highly-anticipated 170-pound rematch against Nate Diaz at this Saturday’s pay-per-view in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Among other topics discussed, “The Notorious” one shed some light on his infamous retirement tweet, which was the biggest tweet by an athlete this year, even beating out NBA legend Kobe Bryant’s retirement tweet.
“I have decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya’s later,” wrote McGregor on Twitter, seemingly out of the blue, putting things in motion for a crazy sequence of events between McGregor and the UFC.
As McGregor explained in his interview with GQ Magazine, he was never really serious about retiring, but instead was merely using it as a negotiation tactic.
“I was never really retired,” McGregor told GQ. “That was more just a negotiation type thing. It was a little bit of a joke, to be honest. And then it just blew the fuck up.”
Interestingly enough, McGregor also revealed in the interview that he actually attempted to get back on the UFC 200 fight card, but as everyone saw on July 9th, to no avail.
While UFC 200 was no doubt still a massive event, McGregor maintains that it “bombed,” and that the real biggest event of the year, or even all-time, is on the horizon and will go down in the same venue, the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, this coming weekend.
“People spend a lot of money to come see me fight from my hometown, and they had already purchased tickets, so I wanted to get back on that card,” said McGregor said of his attempts to get back on the card, as to not let down his loyal, die-hard fans.
McGregor continued, “They weren’t having it. They didn’t put me in the card—that’s okay—and the card bombed. I was ringside. The fights weren’t great, but now here we are.”
Indeed we are.
UFC 202: Diaz vs. McGregor 2 takes place this Saturday, August 20th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Join us here at MMANews.com on 8/20 for live coverage of the UFC 202 PPV!
