Conor McGregor has followed up on his promise to release a full statement regarding his so-called retirement.
In the post the Irishman emphasises to the UFC and USADA that, despite announcing on Twitter he was ‘retiring young’, he intends to continue fighting.
He also explains the reasons behind his decision not to leave a training camp in Iceland in favour of promotional duties.
I am just trying to do my job and fight here.
I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote.
I have become lost in…Posted by Conor McGregor on Thursday, April 21, 2016
McGregor argues that he was seeking ‘leeway’ from the promotion to focus on training for his rematch against Nate Diaz at UFC 200.
He said:
I am just trying to do my job and fight here. I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote.
I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting.
There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.
50 world tours, 200 press conferences, 1 million interviews, 2 million photo shoots, and at the end of it all I’m left looking down the barrel of a lens, staring defeat in the face, thinking of nothing but my incorrect fight preparation. And the many distractions that led to this.
Nothing else was going through my mind…I’m coming for my revenge here.
I flew an entire team to Portugal and to Iceland to make my adjustments in preparation and fix my errors I made with the weight and the cardio prep. With the right adjustments and the right focus, I will finish what I started in that last fight.
The current featherweight champion added:
I will not do this if I am back on the road handing out flyers again.
I will always play the game and play it better than anybody, but just for this one, where I am coming off a loss, I asked for some leeway where I can just train and focus. I did not shut down all media requests.
I simply wanted a slight adjustment. But it was denied…I will offer, like I already did, to fly to New York for the big press conference that was scheduled, and then I will go back into training. With no distractions.
If this is not enough or they feel I have not deserved to sit this promotion run out this one time, well then I don’t know what to say.
For the record also – For USADA and for the UFC and my contract stipulations – I AM NOT RETIRED.
UFC president Dana White had already stated McGregor was dropped from the the card for July 9, before later suggesting the door remained open.
Now it is over the UFC to decide whether the original headline fight for their bicentennial show can be salvaged.
