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The UFC superstar recently let slip that he has yet to withdraw from USADA’s testing pool, which likely makes his supposed retirement all talk.
“Conor McGregor is retired.” Those were the words of UFC president Dana White just back in June.
The reason he was even had to state such a thing, however, is because nobody quite believed it was true. Even, as it turns out, Conor McGregor.
The UFC superstar may have announced he was walking away from mixed martial arts earlier this year, telling reporters that MMA “just does not excite me, and that’s that.” But it appears he’s still very much expecting to get lured back into the fray sometime soon.
“What’s going on here @ufc? USADA have just arrived to my yacht this morning for testing,” McGregor joked in a recent post on his Twitter account, accompanied by photos of USADA’s sample collection equipment and paperwork.
What’s going on here @ufc? USADA have just arrived to my yacht this morning for testing?
I’ve retired guys!
But go on then, I’ll allow them test me. It’s all natural here baby!
Forever and always, God Bless
180km across the Mediterranean Sea tomorrow! LET’S GO!! pic.twitter.com/xjk0wvci0n— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 11, 2020
Obivisouly, USADA wouldn’t be testing McGregor at all if he’d withdrawn from the pool and made his retirement official. And they wouldn’t know to find him on his yacht sailing around the Mediterranean if he hadn’t filed a carefully updated whereabouts report.
So, while Dana White may still be correct in his assertion that Conor McGregor won’t be competing for the UFC in 2020, it’s not because he’s retired. It’s likely just because the UFC hasn’t come up with the right next fight agreement for their superstar talent.