UFC superstar Conor McGregor, in a very Conor McGregor move, has announced his retirement from MMA via Twitter. The former two-division champion has had a rough few years and has been in hot water as of late after public outbursts landed him in legal trouble.
Most recently, McGregor was charged with robbery and criminal mischief after taking a fan’s smartphone and smashing it on the ground outside of a hotel in Florida earlier this month. He was arrested and released on bond.
Hey guys quick announcement, I’ve decided to retire from the sport formally known as “Mixed Martial Art” today.
I wish all my old colleagues well going forward in competition.
I now join my former partners on this venture, already in retirement.
Proper Pina Coladas on me fellas!— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) March 26, 2019
What makes today’s retirement announcement so strange is that McGregor actually appeared on The Tonight Show last night and briefly chatted about his future in the sport. In the prerecorded interview, McGregor stated that he and the UFC were hashing things out for a fight to take place in July. Just hours later, he tweeted that he was done with the sport forever.
“Hey guys quick announcement, I’ve decided to retire from the sport formally known as ‘Mixed Martial Art’ today,” McGregor said in the tweet. “I wish all my old colleagues well going forward in competition. I now join my former partners on this venture, already in retirement. Proper Pina Coladas on me fellas!”
Retirement isn’t something you normally reveal in a “quick announcement” on Twitter, but McGregor has never really done things the conventional way.
It’s important to remember that McGregor has a flair for the dramatic, and has “retired” from fighting before, also via social media. Back in early 2016 McGregor tweeted that he planned to “retire young” and was stepping away from mixed martial arts. Obviously that didn’t happen, and he was back fighting weeks later. He’s fought a total of four times since his last retirement.
Is he serious this time? Now stripped of both of his previous titles, is McGregor ready to leave the spotlight and say goodbye to MMA and the UFC forever? At 30 years old he’s still perfectly capable of continuing his MMA career at a high level, so it doesn’t seem likely, but you never know. Something tells me we’ll see in back in the octagon before the year is out.
