/ / Conor McGregor confirms he's not retired in statement blasting UFC

Conor McGregor confirms he's not retired in statement blasting UFC

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  • McGregor blasts UFC’s promotional demands in wake of cryptic tweet
  • 27-year-old Irishman says he’s “paid to fight” and “not paid to promote”
  • Conor McGregor was beaten by Nate Diaz in UFC 196.
  • UFC fans can relax: Conor McGregor is not retired.
    But the 27-year-old Irishman is fed up with the promotional grind of the UFC treadmill, he explained in a long, exasperated and emotional post on Facebook on Thursday. McGregor said he just wants to fight.
    “I am just trying to do my job and fight here,” McGregor wrote. “I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote. It is time for the other monkeys to dance.”
    McGregor caused a stir on Tuesday evening when he tweeted from his official verified Twitter account: “I have decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya’s later.”
    Dana White, UFC’s president, then announced he had pulled McGregor from his hotly anticipated rematch with Nate Diaz in July because of a reluctance to promote the fight. Fans wondered whether McGregor’s cryptic tweet meant that was the last they’d see of him in UFC – and his removal from UFC 200 further fuelled the speculation.
    But on Thursday McGregor revealed he was not retired, insisting: “I am still ready to go for UFC 200.
    “I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting,” McGregor wrote. “There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.
    “Fifty 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 Connecticut or somewhere, to speak to Tim and Suzie on the nobody-gives-a fuck-morning show did not get me this life.”
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     UFC president Dana White talks about his relationship with Conor McGregor and why he pulled the star from his rematch with Nate Diaz
    McGregor signed for the re-match with Diaz last month in the wake of his shock defeat on 5 March – his first loss in the UFC. Despite pulling him from the fight on 9 March, White said he did not believe McGregor was done fighting.
  • White insists he is not “mad” at McGregor and claims their relationship is fine, but he said every fighter on the roster is expected to promote his or her event. White described McGregor’s unwillingness to do so as “weird.”
    On Thursday, McGregor said he was ready to ditch the promotional work and focus solely on his next fight.
    “With the right adjustments and the right focus, I will finish what I started in that last fight,” he wrote. “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 $10m allocated for the promotion of this event is what they told me. So as a gesture of goodwill, 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.”
    McGregor signed off by retiterating that was not finishing his stint in UFC.
    “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.”
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