On Saturday evening, Conor McGregor retired from MMA. Again.
While many have dismissed the former two-division champion’s latest retirement as a publicity stunt, McGregor spoke to Ariel Helwani of ESPN and the 31-year-old explained why he’s deciding to walk away from the sport.
To McGregor, nothing currently excites him at the moment, and he expresses his frustration over not being in the UFC Lightweight title mix:
"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."
McGregor is simply tired of being offered “stupid fights”, and the former UFC Lightweight Champion makes it clear that’s he’s over the games:
"I had my goals, my plans, the season. I had everything laid out," McGregor said. "Obviously the world has gone bleeding bonkers at the minute. There's f--- all happening at the minute. They want to throw me up and down weights and offer me stupid fights. I don't really give a f---. I'm over it."
White has responded to McGregor’s retirement and the UFC President doesn’t seem too bothered by the former two-division champion hanging up the gloves:
"Nobody is pressuring anybody to fight," White said. "And if Conor McGregor feels he wants to retire, you know my feelings about retirement -- you should absolutely do it. And I love Conor. ... There's a handful of people that have made this really fun for me. And he's one of them."
"If that's what Conor is feeling right now -- Jon Jones, Jorge Masvidal, I feel you. It's not like I'm going, 'Holy s---, this is crazy, this is nuts,'" White said. "Nothing is crazy and nuts right now, because everything is crazy and nuts right now, on a certain level. I totally understand it and get it."