The UFC featherweight champion, 27, posted a cryptic tweet saying that he has "decided to retire young." USA TODAY Sports
You wondered if it was all just a joke or a ruse. Maybe Conor McGregor would come out and give that most modern of all athlete chestnuts and say his Twitter handle was hacked. Or maybe it was true.
Many questions remain unanswered about McGregor, the wildly popular yet hugely divisive Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar, yet Tuesday evening we at least knew this much: After earlier in the day tweeting that he had decided to quit the sport, the 27-year-old was pulled from the main event of July’s UFC 200 by organization officials.
“Is Conor McGregor retiring?” UFC President Dana White said on ESPN. “Only he can answer that question. I don’t know. But Conor McGregor is not fighting at UFC 200.”
Tuesday was shaping up as relatively calm day in the muscularly boisterous world of mixed martial arts. Preparations for UFC 197, headlined by pound-for-pound king Jon Jones on Saturday, had not yet fully heated up.
Then came McGregor with a cryptic message that didn’t even need the full 140 characters to set the sport’s avenues of chatter ablaze. “I have decided to retire young,” he wrote. “Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya’s later.”
Typical McGregor. Aside from Ronda Rousey — or maybe even taking her into account — McGregor is probably the only UFC fighter capable of prompting such a reaction, and he knows it.
On the surface, his departure from MMA seems ludicrous. Despite his loss to Nate Diaz at UFC 196 in March, McGregor is at the peak of his battling powers and earning potential. We don’t know what it is yet, but something is up.
Last week, McGregor witnessed a fighter get so brutally beaten in the octagon that he later died two days later. Charlie Ward, a friend of McGregor’s, was the victor in a fight in which Portugal’s Joao Carvalho suffered fatal injuries.Perhaps that affected McGregor’s feelings toward the sport, and, if so, it would be impossible to blame him.
Maybe it is something else.
White said McGregor was yanked for failing to attend a promotional event for UFC 200, unwilling to leave his training base.
“He didn’t want to (come),” White said. “He’s in Iceland training and he felt leaving right now would hurt his training and getting ready for this fight. But every other fighter on the card was coming. I respect Conor ... but it doesn’t make you exempt for showing up for the press conferences and all the promotional stuff that we have to do.”
We spend a lot of money with this stuff, and you have to do it, man.”
Um ... yeah. So the biggest fight on the biggest card of the year just goes away. Because of a news conference. If you’re not buying that explanation, you’re not alone.
Either way, it is a major problem for the UFC, which has a gaping hole at the top of its card for the show it intends to be the biggest and best ever.
Diaz’s popularity took a leap after beating McGregor, but he is not an established enough star to have be a natural fit for top billing alone.
White has a headache to add to the other issues that have blighted the company in recent times. Injuries have piled up, affecting big cards, time and again.
Diaz himself was a replacement for Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196. Daniel Cormier pulled out of his scheduled clash with Jones this weekend. The card that was originally to be called UFC 196 was taken off pay-per-view entirely when heavyweights Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez went down with injuries.
If McGregor holds good on his apparent promise and is not seen in action again, a major superstar will be lost from MMA. However, no one is going to believe his exit is permanent just yet.
Pretty much everything McGregor does follows the Floyd Mayweather Jr. playbook. Mayweather has been short with the truth in his public comments for years, and even his much-publicized retirement could soon be over, as rumors of future fights swirl. This could be the same thing, for whatever reason McGregor has chosen. He also could be messing with the UFC.
PHOTOS: Conor McGregor in the UFC
There is evidence that his ego has spiraled a little out of control in recent times. He and his team began to believe their own hype, especially in the buildup to the Diaz defeat. He talks of owning the organization, such is his earning potential, and says he is the only star that matters. It is all good promotional shtick for a while, and White has long been fond of bombastic crossover stars who bring in the cash.
But McGregor also has become more difficult to deal with, and this might be the latest incarnation of that. Did something set him off to the point where the thought of sending a flood of panic into the UFC’s offices held appeal?
Or maybe he’s just had enough. This is a character who was claiming government checks a few years back. He now has millions, exactly how many we will never know, but more than enough to live a comfortable lifestyle for as long as he wishes, without needing to get bashed in the face anymore.
Some will say that surely McGregor, whose fame has largely been a social media construct, loves the spotlight far too much to step clear of it. Yet maybe that was part of the act, too, along with the bragging and the bumptious nature.
He’ll be missed if that is the case. That unpredictability is what makes him exciting and has helped craft his legend. As for the UFC, it can only plan ahead and hope for his return.
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