Conor McGregor has apparently decided to retire from mixed martial arts…again.
Now before anyone starts breaking out the timeshare vacation home and gold watches, this isn’t the first time that McGregor has made a similar announcement during his career.
The latest comes just hours after McGregor appeared on “The Tonight Show” and stated that he was negotiating for a July return to the UFC but added that the fight game was ‘mad’ at the same time.
Now McGregor is saying he’s retired from the sport after posting the news on his Twitter account.
“Hey guys quick announcement, I’ve decided to retire from the sport formally known as “Mixed Martial Art” today,” McGregor wrote.
“I wish all my old colleagues well going forward in competition. I now join my former partners on this venture, already in retirement. Proper Pina Coladas on me fellas!”
McGregor’s declaration comes nearly three years after he first ‘retired’ from fighting after he was in the middle of a dispute with the UFC over his next contest.
Back then, McGregor dropped a note out of nowhere that read “I have decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya’s later”.
McGregor obviously didn’t actually retire and he returned to action a few months later when he faced Nate Diaz in a rematch at UFC 202 in August 2016.
Still, that message from McGregor exploded on social media and ended up as one of the biggest posts of the entire year with nearly 150,000 retweets to this day.
It’s not clear if McGregor is once again embroiled in heated negotiations with the UFC over his next fight but all signs seem to point in that direction.
McGregor was reportedly in talks to face Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone until the UFC apparently wanted to make that fight a co-main event on a pay-per-view card rather than the featured headlined. As the biggest draw in the sport, McGregor knows the value he brings to a card so co-main event status might not exactly sit well with him.
The timing is all very strange considering McGregor has twice said in the past week that he’s targeting a return to action in July but perhaps talks with the UFC have broken down.
Either way for now, McGregor is claiming he’s retired from mixed martial arts.
