Why Conor McGregor Retired

UFC legend Conor McGregor retired right after Amanda Nunes beat Felicia Spencer at UFC 250. No MMA fan is taking McGregor’s announcement seriously. Who can blame them? After all, McGregor has retired three times over the last four years.

This is what he tweeted after UFC 250:

“Hey guys I’ve decided to retire from fighting.
Thank you all for the amazing memories! What a ride it’s been!
Here is a picture of myself and my mother in Las Vegas post one of my World title wins!
Pick the home of your dreams Mags I love you!
Whatever you desire it’s yours ❤️”

“The Notorious One” has always returned. UFC President Dana White recently said that Conor McGregor’s sole focus before his sudden retirement was getting a rematch against KhabibNurmagomedov.

McGregor lost to Nurmagomedov via submission in the fourth round at UFC 229 on October 6th, 2018 and he’s wanted a second chance at the reigning UFC lightweight champion for a while.

Nurmagomedov is busy for a while and there’s nothing on the horizon for McGregor. At least nothing that interests him to make him desire to keep training. This is what led to his decision to retire again.

Conor McGregor is the first fighter to hold UFC championships in two different weight divisions at the same time. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani interviewed him the morning after announcing his retirement:

“The game just does not excite me, and that’s that,” McGregor told Helwani. “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.”

He explained that “there’s nothing there for me” and that the UFC could have booked him against Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title. McGregor also said that the promotion wanted “to show some kind of power” by making him wait for the outcome of the Nurmagomedov-Gaethje fight.

“They should have just kept the ball rolling,” McGregor also said. “I mean, why are they pushing [KhabibNurmagomedov 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.”