This is not the first time that Conor McGregor has announced his retirement from the sport.
Conor has retired before and it lasted 48 hours and we’ve seen it in the fight game many times before.
Recall in April 2016, McGregor tweeted: “I have decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese,” and was then not included on the UFC 200 card.
But he quickly delivered a retraction outlining that he had instead fallen out with the sport’s bosses over promotional work.
It is commonly a power play to come out and say that you are going to retire to make promoters and everybody in the infrastructure of the sport panic and come back to you with an extra zero to the next cheque.
Also In September 2018, McGregor launched an Irish whiskey brand.
Following McGregor’s announcement UFC President Dana White told MMA writers in the US: “He has the money to retire. It totally makes sense. If I was him, I would retire too.
Dana further said “He’s retiring from fighting, not from working. The whiskey will keep him busy and I’m sure he has other things he’s working on.”
“He has been so fun to watch. He has accomplished incredible things in this sport. I am so happy for him and look forward to seeing him be as successful outside the octagon as he was in it.”
However, McGregor’s latest statement arrives after an interview aired on an American television show, in which he claimed he was in negotiations with the UFC about a return to fighting in July.
“Next camp and I do believe it should happen, I mean, why not? Why not? If I have sparring partners in my camp that march forward, trust me when I tell you, I will send his head into the bleachers.”
For the last 25 years it has been based around pay-per-view deals. So 10 times a year they did big pay-per-view events and for those events they needed superstars and champions. So Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar would fight twice a year and those events would generate the most income.
However, that all changed in 2019 with UFC’s deal with ESPN+. You no longer have to pay $100 (N36, 000) for a couple of events twice a year when McGregor fights. Instead you pay around $9 (N3, 240) a month for your subscription.
So this may be Dana White coming out and saying “we no longer need our biggest stars to fight twice a year. McGregor will need the biggest pay cheque in UFC history to come back and the numbers might not work for UFC anymore.”
McGregor has more money than sense. He dreamt of becoming a millionaire and a UFC champion but did he ever dream of transcending the sport and becoming a global icon. Did he ever dream of generating so much from one fight? It is difficult to stay hungry when you are waking up on silk sheets.
Jonathan Aderoju
