Conor McGregor, one of the most marketable names in blended martial arts and a former UFC champion in weight instructions, introduced his retirement in the wee hours of Tuesday morning through his Twitter account. McGregor has fought sparingly within the octagon in recent years. His most recent loss, an October submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, was marred using post-bout melees regarding each fighter and their entourages. As a result, the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Nurmagomedov for nine months and

McGregor for six, a sanction scheduled to cease on April 6. That UFC 229 card drew 2.4 million pay-in-step with-view buys, the maximum ever for an MMA occasion. In August 2017, McGregor fought in a closely hyped boxing healthy towards undefeated champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., which drew four. Three million pay-in-step with-view buys in North America on my own earned McGregor a reported payday of over $ hundred million.
UFC President Dana White texted the Associated Press that McGregor’s net worth was a major factor in the statement, which he said: “It makes sense.

He has the cash to retire, and his whiskey is KILLIN it,” White stated, a connection with his Proper No. Twelve Whiskey undertaking. “If I became him, I would retire too. He’s retiring from preventing. Not from working. The Whiskey will keep him busy, and I’m positive he has other matters he’s operating on. He has been so amusing to look at!!! He has accomplished perfect things in this sport. I am so satisfied for him, and I stay up to see him as a hit outdoors of the octagon as he turned into it.

Despite lousy opinions — one said McGregor’s Irish whiskey featured “notes of turpentine interlaced with the musk from a crowded, poorly-maintained Turkish bathhouse sauna” — the liquor reportedly has offered properly considering its debut in September. White expected last yr that McGregor might make “1000000000 bucks” off Proper Hours before his announcement; McGregor appeared on “The Tonight Show” and said he was negotiating to fight at UFC 239 in July (Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone turned into one rumored opponent) ahead of a probable rematch with Nurmagomedov late this yr. But he additionally reiterated that he didn’t always need to step back into the octagon.

I don’t always need to combat,” McGregor said on the show, in line with the AP. “I am set for lifestyles. My own family, McGregor, has had a few run-ins with the regulations inside the United States. The seeds of the Nurmagomedov brawl had been planted four months earlier. At the same time, he threw a device dolly at a bus carrying the Russian fighter and his schooling partners at some stage in a UFC promotional occasion in Brooklyn. McGregor pleaded no contest to rely on disorderly conduct and obtained network carrier and anger-control courses.

Earlier this month, McGregor was charged with strong-arm robbery and criminal mischief, both felonies, in Miami after police alleged that the Irishman “stomped” on and took a person’s mobile phone in an incident outdoors the Fontainebleau Hotel. It’s not the first time McGregor, 30, has introduced his retirement on Twitter. In April 2016, he wrote that he had “decided to retire younger,” one month after losing to Nate Diaz.

But he reversed his choice days later and would return four months later with a victory over Diaz at UFC 202. He gained the UFC light-weight name by beating Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016, his last win in the octagon. Former MMA superstar Ronda Rousey appeared to indicate there is probably some other reversal in McGregor’s destiny. Well, it’s a creative way to retire and a cryptic way to quit, so we’ll see how permanent it is,” she stated on E.