“Well, what’s happened is, we have pulled Conor McGregor from UFC 200, and we are working on other fights at the moment”, UFC President Dana White said as quoted by ESPN.
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According to McGregor’s social media accounts, the fighter, known as “The Notorious”, is now training in Iceland. “He felt leaving right now would hurt his training, but every other fighter on the card is coming”. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass. McGregor’s game is trash talk and intimidation, and that’s tough to do when you just lost to the fighter you’re seated with on the dais.
The announcement, which makes little sense if taken at face value, was re-tweeted more than 50,000 times in the 90 minutes following McGregor’s tweet.
White, meanwhile, said he had been in communication with McGregor’s management throughout Tuesday.
The UFC now finds itself looking for someone else to fill up the void left by McGregor.
The UFC featherweight champion will not be a part of the biggest night in the promotion’s history after being dramatically pulled from UFC 200.
His stunning loss in March, where he went up two divisions to fight Diaz at welterweight, came as another blow to the UFC following the previously undefeated Ronda Rousey’s loss to Holly Holm.
“I guess my work here is done I’m retiring too”, Diaz tweeted Tuesday. When asked, White himself couldn’t answer that question.
Despite all this, White provided assurances that the UFC’s relationship with McGregor remains a strong one.
Eventhough White offered his explanation earlier tonight, it’s still been speculated as to exactly why the fight was called off if it was only for McGregor skipping the Las Vegas events, or if there’s more to the story.
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Instead, White claimed that the 27-year-old had been pulled for refusing to fly to Las Vegas to fulfill promotional duties for the event. McGregor once notoriously said that he doesn’t fight for UFC, he is UFC, so this is consistent with his mindset.
