Conor McGregor tweets 'I have decided to retire young'

[Chuck]

http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/15272422/conor-mcgregor-tweets-decided-retire-young

 

[nate]

http://deadspin.com/conor-mcgregor-is-probably-not-but-who-knows-retiri-1771896260?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

Douche bags age like fine wine. I highly doubt he's done. If he is, good riddance.

[Chuck]

Diaz reacts...

[nate]

Yeah so they just want $

[Brandon]

He was ring side when that fighter died. Probably that and $.

Pretty wild.

[Tank]

was surprised to see his record was 19-3. figured he would have had a lot more fights since espn was describing him as "the face of UFC."

[Brandon]

He is. He promotes the shit out of fights and is completely polarizing....even here you see dudes that like him or completely hate him. The fight commissions require fighters base purse for fights be posted and he's the first guy in the sports history to earn 1 mil in just base purse in his last fight. He talks like Muhammad Ali and backs it up until his last fight, he has a great background story of from nothing to the top....he just has that thing that draws people to his fights and the sport.

 

 

On a side note, he just posted this 15 minutes ago:

 

I am just trying to do my job and fight here. 

I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote.
I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting. 
There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.
50 world tours, 200 press conferences, 1 million interviews, 2 million photo shoots, and at the end of it all I'm left looking down the barrel of a lens, staring defeat in the face, thinking of nothing but my incorrect fight preparation. And the many distractions that led to this. 
Nothing else was going through my mind. 
It is time to go back and live the life that got me this life.
Sitting in a car on the way to some dump in Conneticut or somewhere, to speak to Tim and Suzie on the nobody gives a **** morning show did not get me this life. 
Talking to some lady that deep down doesn't give a **** 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.
I'm coming for my revenge here. 
I flew an entire team to Portugal and to Iceland to make my adjustments in preparation and fix my errors I made with the weight and the cardio prep. 
With the right adjustments and the right focus, I will finish what I started in that last fight. 
I will not do this if I am back on the road handing out flyers again.
I will always play the game and play it better than anybody, but 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. 
There had been 10 million dollars allocated for the promotion of this event is what they told me. 
So as a gesture of good will, I went and not only saved that 10 million dollars in promotion money, I then went and tripled it for them. 
And all with one tweet.
Keep that 10 mill to promote the other bums that need it. My shows are good. 
I must isolate myself now.
I am facing a taller, longer and heavier man. I need to prepare correctly this time. 
I can not dance for you this time.
It is time for the other monkeys to dance. I've danced us all the way here. 
Nate's little mush head looks good up on that stage these days. Stuff him in front of the camera for it. 
He came in with no shit to do that last one. I'd already done press conferences, interviews and shot the ads before RDA pulled out.
Maybe I'll hit Cabo this time and skull some shots pre-fight with no obligation.
I'm doing what I need for me now. 
It is time to be selfish with my training again. It is the only way. 
I feel the $400million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside 8 months, is enough to get me this slight leeway. 
I am still ready to go for UFC 200. 
I will offer, like I already did, to fly to New York for the big press conference that was scheduled, and then I will go back into training. With no distractions.
If this is not enough or they feel I have not deserved to sit this promotion run out this one time, well then I don't know what to say. 
For the record also - 
For USADA and for the UFC and my contract stipulations - 
I AM NOT RETIRED.

[nate]

I am sure the UFC hates this.  They treat their fighters like shit and pay them shit.

 

It was only a matter of time until a fighter that mattered rebelled against them.

[Thomas]

I was thinking something like this would happen. Even as someone barely interested in UFC it seemed that the big stars were spending a lot of time talking to the media and promoting and I was wondering when they had time to actually train. I get that you have to promote but it did seem rather excessive.

[nate]

It isn't about that though, it is about the fact that they don't get paid for it.

[Brandon]

One of those thing that goes hand in hand, part of the reason he makes the money he does is the promotion end and draws people in. The base purse is just the guarantee, they get revenue splits as well.

 

But he does have a point, Diaz base was 500k for simply stepping in on 11 days notice. Conor had already built the fight with the media side, let others do it, even though they will not draw what Conor does.

 

I guess we wait and see how the UFC goes to putting this thing back together. I get both sides though, Conor coming off a loss wants to focus and train, UFC 200 was always billed as the mecca due to it being an anniversary of sorts so the UFC is putting together a hell of a super card and promoting the shit out of it.

 

The problem is Conor's post is true and completely reasonable. 

[Brandon]

This is getting awesome. That press conference that happened yesterday Dana White said Diaz will fight, but not Conor, and they are looking for his opponent.

 

Then they open it up to media for questions and when asked, Diaz says he will only fight Conor or go on vacation. When asked again to confirm he basically said it's Conor or nothing with Dana standing at the podium next to him. The look on Dana's face.

 

They're going to be in a spot that they have to make this work, too much money on the line with Conor/Diaz match. No one really gives a shit about Jones/DC that everyone knows Jones will win again.

[nando714]

McGregor would be awesome in the WWE

Get'r done Vince

[Brandon]

It's not, he just doesn't want to do the media circus. His last two fights had these global media tours. That kind of travel can be pretty brutal in between trying to get ready for a fight.

 

Conor tweeted this morning he's back on the card, but TMZ just interviewed Dana White and he says Conor is still off.