Conor McGregor shocked the MMA world on Tuesday when he posted on Twitter that he was retiring early. As I wrote yesterday, we began to wonder what was going on and if he would compete in the rematch against Nate Diaz in UFC 200 as planned. Well UFC president Dana White answered that inquiry, announcing that Conor McGregor is cut from UFC 200 but his reason is not what we thought.
White appeared on SportsCenter and announced McGregor was pulled from UFC 200 due to his unwillingness to fly to Las Vegas and participate in mandatory promotional activities.
via ESPN:
“We pulled Conor McGregor from UFC 200 and we’re working on other fights right now,” White said. “Conor did not want to come to Las Vegas and film the commercial and be a part of the marketing. He’s in Iceland training.
“Is Conor retiring? Only he can answer that question. I don’t know.”
White went on to say that the UFC has a good relationship with McGregor and he respects him as a fighter, but the promotional activities were mandatory.
While that may be White’s reason for pulling McGregor, it still appears to some that McGregor refused to fly to Vegas because he’s done completely and didn’t want to compete in UFC 200. It’s not confirmed but it appears McGregor was affected after watching Joao Carvalho compete in a fight in Dublin; Carvalho later died from his injuries. McGregor has heard from other fighters, their issues after competing in the sport for so long. MMA fighters might start going the route NFL players have recently done, retire early while their brain is still intact.
