Conor McGregor: 'I AM NOT RETIRED'
Two days after tweeting that he had retired as a fighter, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor reversed course, issuing a 651-word statement on Facebook in which he wrote in all capital letters, "I AM NOT RETIRED."
He also noted that he is open to fight Nate Diaz at UFC 200 on July 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and to fly to New York next week for a news conference at Madison Square Garden to promote the fight.
But by refusing to come to Las Vegas for a 2 p.m. PT news conference that will be held at the MGM Grand Garden on Friday that UFC officials insisted he do, McGregor did not satisfy all of the company's requirements. On Wednesday during an appearance on Fox Sports 1, UFC president Dana White said McGregor was off the card because he was already missing so many things that needed to be done to promote the event.
Friday is not the first day of promotion. All of the fighters are here right now. Ten million dollars is going to be spent on promotion and the commercial alone is going to cost $1 million. He’s already missing stuff so the window is pretty much closed.
After making his offer to fly to New York, McGregor said it was the best he can do.
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.
Earlier in his statement, McGregor pointed out the need to correct mistakes he made in his March 5 fight against Diaz, when he was submitted by Diaz via rear naked choke in a welterweight bout in the main event of UFC 196.
He said he couldn't prepare properly by doing an extensive media tour. Since he debuted in the UFC in 2013, he's been the company's hardest worker along with ex-women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in terms of promoting bouts and doing appearances.
He wrote that he is tired of "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 [expletive] morning show ... "
The expense of building a training camp and the dedication he needed to make the adjustments to defeat Diaz were major themes of his post.
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.
McGregor holds the 145-pound championship belt and was planning to fight for the lightweight title at UFC 196 against Rafael dos Anjos until dos Anjos broke his foot less than two weeks before the bout. Diaz took the bout as a replacement, but because he hadn't been in training, McGregor agreed to fight him at 170 pounds, two weight classes above the division where he's the champion.
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.
At the final pre-fight news conference before UFC 196, Luke Rockhold, who was then challenging Chirs Weidman for the middleweight belt, said he was happy so much attention had been focused on McGregor so that it made it easier for him to prepare.
McGregor has often referred to how much he does for other fighters.
3 years ago today, I began my crusade to take all you bums from 5 figure paydays to multi seven figure paydays.
And not even a thank you.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 6, 2016
He essentially asked in his statement for other fighters to step up to do the bulk of promoting for UFC 200.
The UFC has yet to respond to McGregor's post. Yahoo Sports reached out to White for comment, but he did not respond.