Tag: Conor McGregor Retirement

Nate Diaz Had One Simple Reply For Conor McGregor’s Press Conference Troll

In news that will surprise absolutely no one, the absence of recently un-retired Irish featherweight champion Conor McGregor was the foremost topic of discussion at today’s (Friday, April 22, 2016) UFC 200 press conference from Las Vegas. McGregor famously tweeted out his retirement earlier this week after choosing to remain in Iceland training for his

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In news that will surprise absolutely no one, the absence of recently un-retired Irish featherweight champion Conor McGregor was the foremost topic of discussion at today’s (Friday, April 22, 2016) UFC 200 press conference from Las Vegas.

McGregor famously tweeted out his retirement earlier this week after choosing to remain in Iceland training for his scheduled rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 200, and then rescinded it in a heated statement made to his Facebook page yesterday.

The ultra-popular Irishman also took a moment to make the presser all about him, tweeting out his ‘respect’ to the fighters that made it, but at the same time noting that they had not made the UFC $400 million dollars in the last eight months:

ESPN’s Brett Okamoto caught wind of McGregor’s post and asked Diaz about it. When Diaz, who submitted McGregor in shocking fashion at March 5’s UFC 196, was told what McGregor had said, he had one simple reply:

“Conor got his ass beat.”

As for the now-scrapped rematch fight with McGregor, Diaz revealed he didn’t even want the fight, but was focused on preparing for ‘The Notorious’ — and him alone — once it became clear that was the decision the UFC was going with:

“I came to fight Conor McGregor, and I don’t have any, too much interest in anyone else. I don’t have any interest in fighting at all, but if that’s what we’re gonna do, I thought we were gonna do it.”

UFC President Dana White seemingly half-heartedly guaranteed that Diaz vs. McGregor II was off of UFC 200 as of right now, he also repeatedly focused on the fact that the July 9 is still three months away.

We’ll have to wait and see if the UFC’s hardline stance on McGregor lightens in any way, but for ‘Notorious,’ Diaz’ stinging words will always remain true, at least for their first fight.

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Nate Diaz Reacts To Conor McGregor’s Latest UFC Callout….And It’s Hilarious

In a week absolutely dominated by the hasty retirement and then un-retirement of UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, we’ve heard precious little from Nate Diaz, the man who recently destroyed ‘The Notorious,’ at March’s UFC 196 and was set to rematch him in the main event of July’s UFC 200 until McGregor was unceremoniously pulled.

The post Nate Diaz Reacts To Conor McGregor’s Latest UFC Callout….And It’s Hilarious appeared first on LowKick MMA.

In a week absolutely dominated by the hasty retirement and then un-retirement of UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, we’ve heard precious little from Nate Diaz, the man who recently destroyed ‘The Notorious,’ at March’s UFC 196 and was set to rematch him in the main event of July’s UFC 200 until McGregor was unceremoniously pulled.

Diaz quickly spoke up this Tuesday when McGregor issued his original puzzling retirement tweet, but other than that he had remained relatively quiet on the subject as countless top fighters were prodded for their opinion on McGregor while the drama overshadowed every bit of coverage for this weekend’s UFC 197.

That is, until now.

When McGregor issued a response boasting his accomplishments and putting the ball in the UFC’s court last night, Diaz tweeted and deleted his own response, but it still showed up on Jake Shields’ Instagram. Check it out here:

A photo posted by Jake Shields (@jakeshields) on


That’s certainly going to draw the ire of McGregor fans everywhere, who believe that the UFC asked him to do far too much promotion for his fights which in turn prevented him from training like he needed to in order to win. However, Diaz has the right to talk a bit of smack himself, because even though McGregor is still the most talked-about personality in MMA, he did slay him.

We were going to have a chance to see if McGregor could avenge that loss at UFC 200, but the promotion has apparently decided to pull McGregor off the card altogether. Will we ever see Diaz rematch MMA’s most polarizing star?

The post Nate Diaz Reacts To Conor McGregor’s Latest UFC Callout….And It’s Hilarious appeared first on LowKick MMA.

UFC Officially Calls Off Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz Despite Statement

It looks like the UFC isn’t buying Conor McGregor’s in-depth statement about his ‘retirement’ earlier this week. McGregor took to Facebook earlier today to state that he wasn’t retired and to clear the air with his employers in a sense, but according to a report from TMZ, the promotion won’t keep him in the main

The post UFC Officially Calls Off Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz Despite Statement appeared first on LowKick MMA.

It looks like the UFC isn’t buying Conor McGregor’s in-depth statement about his ‘retirement’ earlier this week.

McGregor took to Facebook earlier today to state that he wasn’t retired and to clear the air with his employers in a sense, but according to a report from TMZ, the promotion won’t keep him in the main event of UFC 200 against Nate Diaz.

In his statement, McGregor repeatedly stressed the rigors of the nonstop promotional whirlwind that he feels partly lead to his shocking and disappointing defeat to Diaz at March 5’s UFC 196.

McGregor wanted more time to focus on his training coming off of a loss, and went to Iceland to isolate himself. When his management was told he would have to make it to the presser, he balked and issued his now-infamous retirement tweet on Tuesday. While he’s obviously debunked what many thought was a myth in the first place, it isn’t enough to save his headlining spot on arguably the UFC’s biggest card ever.

It’s highly debatable if the event will reach that lofty status without McGregor, yet the early indications are the UFC is done with letting McGregor call the shots regardless of how their media schedule interferes with his training.

UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN stating that they had pulled McGregor from the event because he refused to take part in a press conference, but said the UFC would listen to McGregor and possibly let him fight on the July 9 blockbuster from Las Vegas if he contacted him.

He must not have contacted him, and the UFC apparently didn’t feel that his lengthy statement on Facebook was enough of an explanation.

There are going to be multiple viewpoints on this one, as McGregor’s many legions of fans are certainly going to understand that he just wanted some time to get better to avenge his most disappointing defeat, and then the opposing side will insist that the brash Irishman should do what is required by his employers due to the many millions he makes.

Which side are you on?

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Conor McGregor Could Reportedly Still Fight At UFC 200

With the collective mixed martial arts (MMA) world still trying to make sense of Conor McGregor’s cryptic retirement tweet and subsequent removal from July’s massive UFC 200 card yesterday, UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN’s ‘The Herd’ with Colin Cowherd today (Wed., April 20, 2016) to give his side of what transpired and what

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With the collective mixed martial arts (MMA) world still trying to make sense of Conor McGregor’s cryptic retirement tweet and subsequent removal from July’s massive UFC 200 card yesterday, UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN’s ‘The Herd’ with Colin Cowherd today (Wed., April 20, 2016) to give his side of what transpired and what direction the UFC would now head:

The strange proceedings of the past few days would definitely suggest that McGregor and the UFC are at odds in a big way, but White insisted to Cowherd that simply wasn’t the case, insisting that things never got combative (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“It never got combative, and I was talking to his manager,” White said. “They were asking to move all this stuff to May, and you can’t move this. This stuff is in motion. All fans care about is the fights, and that’s all they should care about. Any fan of the UFC [knows] that this happened once before when I pulled Nick Diaz from the fight.

“Everyone likes to talk about how I coddle Conor, and I baby Conor, and Conor can do whatever he wants and all this stuff. No, no you can’t. We do give Conor a lot of leeway because Conor delivers. He wasn’t planning on delivering this weekend and I had to pull him. That’s what had to be done.”

As for the wide-held rumor that McGregor was merely making a power play for more money in his previously scheduled welterweight rematch with Nate Diaz at the midsummer spectacle, White said that again was not true, instead blasting online outlets who had suggested that was the case:
“[It’s] not a money issue. That’s false,” White said. “That’s the problem with the Internet. You have all these hacks out there who just make stuff up for clicks. Never, ever was this about money. It was never about money. Conor makes a lot of money, and Conor’s very happy about the money he makes. Conor for the most part is a stand-up guy. He’s never come back after agreeing on a deal, and the fight is announced, and he comes back for more money. Conor is not that type of person.”
And in terms of the UFC’s relationship with their Irish featherweight champion, White insisted that their business relationship had not been damaged at all:

“Our relationship isn’t damaged at all,” White said. “…I’m not even mad a little bit. I had pretty smooth day…. When Conor went out, 10 other people called asking to go in. It’s going to be a massive event. It’s still a big fight. No, I’m not mad at all.”

Finally, White admitted that if McGregor were to contact him today and clarify the situation, then all might be forgiven and he could still fight at UFC 200, even if he already said that Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar could fight for McGregor’s vacant featherweight belt on the card if ‘Notorious’ doesn’t give them a solid idea of his plans very soon.

The promotional machine for UFC 200 must roll on with millions having been spent, and White insisted McGregor is obviously an integral part of that, which makes his refusal to show up for the media event a non-negotiable obligation:

“Yeah, if he called me after this interview, we would probably still do it,” White said. “The problem with this whole thing is you have to be here to promote your fight and you have to shoot this commercial. We’re spending $10 million in promotion for UFC 200, and all that money is motion. You can’t do this. I don’t care who you are, or how big you are, you can’t do this.”

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Nate Diaz Reacts To Conor McGregor’s Shocking Retirement

With the MMA universe scrambling to make sense of featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s supposed retirement on Twitter less than three months before his pivotal rematch with rival Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 200, it looks like the younger Diaz has decided to follow suit. After catching word of McGregor’s apparent decision to call

The post Nate Diaz Reacts To Conor McGregor’s Shocking Retirement appeared first on LowKick MMA.

With the MMA universe scrambling to make sense of featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s supposed retirement on Twitter less than three months before his pivotal rematch with rival Nate Diaz in the main event of UFC 200, it looks like the younger Diaz has decided to follow suit.

After catching word of McGregor’s apparent decision to call it a career, Diaz just took to his own Twitter account to post that he had had enough and was retiring as well. Check it out:

Now the word is still obviously out as to whether or not McGregor will actually retire, but his longtime head coach John Kavanagh has reported that it is true, and Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting has also reported that sources have told him it could be legitimate.

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Still, it could also be a power play at more money for UFC 200, because he’s scheduled for a fight he could easily lose to Diaz, which would obviously be another blow to his still powerful-but-waning star power. Regardless, it looks like Tuesday just got a lot weirder for MMA fans everywhere.

As for Diaz, it’s most likely more improbable that he actually calls it quits, but he may have sent McGregor into an early one.

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