Conor McGregor shocked the world on Saturday night following UFC 250, taking to social media to announce that he was once again going to retire. This is McGregor's third retirement announcement since 2016 and the last two didn't exactly stick.
With news just hitting his feed, Dana White commented on McGregor's announcement during the UFC 250 post-fight press conference.
"I'll remind everybody that we're in a pandemic, the world is a crazy place right now. I think everybody feels this right now. No travel, can't travel the fights around. I think everybody is pissed off, confused, been locked in your house for three and a half months. Protests and riots. If you don't think that what I'm doing right now is probably the hardest thing that I've ever done and that three times a day, I throw my fucking' hands up and I'm ready to say, 'fuck this shit.' The amount of people I have gunning at me right now is insane. But here we are. This is our fifth fight. No other sports are going right now but us. One of the beautiful things about this sport is...you don't have to fight. This isn't the NBA or NFL where you have to be at practice. If these guys want to sit out or retire or feel uncomfortable with what's going on, you don't have to fight. It's all good. If that's what Conor's feeling, Jon Jones, Jorge Masvidal, I feel you. Nothing is crazy and nuts because everything is crazy and nuts. On a certain level, I get it," said White.
Dana and the UFC have been dealing with a number of high-profile fighters not wanting to fight in recent weeks with most issues stemming from a lack of payment. Both Jorge Masvidal and Jon Jones have called out Dana and the company for their lack of compensation, leading to a public war of words between the two sides.
But Dana sees things a little differently with McGregor.
"There's been a handful of people who have made this fun for me and Conor is one of those guys. The star that he became, he introduced this globally to people. It's been fun and awesome. Proper 12 whiskey has sold an obscene amount. Conor McGregor is not gonna need money anytime soon. He loves to fight, he's passionate about it and he has an incredible fight IQ. You know my feelings on fighters retiring. You say you wanna retire, don't worry about, do your thing. It's all good."
When asked if Conor was possibly retiring due to a lack of a fight on his schedule, Dana said, "He's been wanting to fight. He's frustrated because he wants to fight. It's not that we can't have him fight. But who do you have him fight right now? [Tony] Ferguson? He's called out Masvidal. And where do we fight? Fight Island isn't running until July. If you look at all the problems to run a business, multiply it by a million."
McGregor last fought in January, defeating Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds. He's since teased fights with a handful of guys including Khabib Nurmagomedov, Nate Diaz, Anderson Silva, and more. As of now, he remains retired.
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