Conor McGregor is not retiring from the UFC, he announced in a lengthy facebook post. The post comes after a tweet announcing an early retirement that set off speculation across the media. The fighter, coming off his first loss in the leading MMA league, stated at the end, simply and to the point: “I AM NOT RETIRED.”
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“I am just trying to do my job and fight here. I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote,” McGregor wrote. His post then went into the perils of having to do tours and press conferences and interviews, all of which he feels distract him from preparing for his fight.
His rant included some distractions of its own, including a misogynistic aside, saying, “Talking to some lady that deep down doesn’t give a f**k 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.”
Of course, contractually, he is also getting paid to promote. McGregor has a UFC contract that no doubt includes promotional duties, just as nearly every professional athlete’s contract in every professional sport in every country in the world has.
He calms down a bit, and says, “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.”
McGregor then claims that his “one tweet” was worth 30 million dollars of promotion money, and was a “gesture of good will” toward the UFC. His tweet, announcing his early retirement, was picked up by news outlets from this one to ESPN and beyond.
At any rate, McGregor says he is “still ready to go for UFC 200,” and willing to do the NY press conference, as long as it means he can go back into training with no distractions afterwards. The fighter is very publicly putting the ball in Dana White’s court, trying to force the UFC runner’s hand by getting public support for his cause.
Guess he won’t be going to the WWE anytime soon afterall.
