In a story written on the UFC’s website, the organization said McGregor was pulled for refusing to promote the fight by doing press events and commercial shoots.
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Ironically, McGregor himself was in Iceland training at the time for UFC 200 when the whole event unfolded. Now, if McGregor had already decided of leaving the sport, would there be any particular reason for him to train ahead of his bout against Diaz on July 9, 2016?
“We’ve had instances like this before – I did it to Nick Diaz when he didn’t attend a press conference before he fought George St Pierre. We spend a lot of money with this stuff, and you have to do it, man”, White said. “Only he can answer that question”, explained White.
“It is such a rare occurence that I don’t know how to take this”, it read.
McGregor surged through the featherweight ranks before knocking out champion Jose Aldo in 13 seconds in December.
There was confusion last night over McGregor’s future when he tweeted that he had “decided to retire young”.
Whether or not Conor McGregor has actually retired is still up for debate, but one thing is clear – as of now he won’t be fighting Nate Diaz at UFC 200 in July.
Today has been one of the weirdest days in MMA history.
UFC president Dana White confirmed that the UFC 200 main draw between McGregor and Diaz is off.
He suffered the first loss of his UFC career March 5, in a 170-pound nontitle fight against Diaz at UFC 196 in Las Vegas.
McGregor caused confusion on Tuesday evening when he sent a tweet saying he was quitting. The Irishman was previously unbeaten since signing with UFC.
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McGregor’s apparent retirement comes just over a week after the tragic death of Joao Carvalho following a fight in Ireland at which the UFC champion was sitting cageside.
