UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor has been away from MMA for an age, it seems. When asked about his potential retirement from combat sports, McGregor made some interesting points…
Currently the biggest star in MMA, Conor McGregor has not competed in the cage during 2017. During a truly wild year away, McGregor did remain active as a fighter, though. His crazy trip to the world of boxing had the world fixated.
Although he lost by tenth round TKO, ‘The Notorious’ made a handsome wage for the evening on August 26. Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor was a circus in many ways, but fun nonetheless.
Meanwhile, in the UFC, Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee competed for the interim lightweight title. Almost identical to his featherweight reign, McGregor has gone a year without defending the lightweight belt.
With Ferguson chomping at the bit for a title unification fight, all eyes are once again on the Irishman.
Retirement Talk
The landscape at 155 pounds is only just starting to recover from a year of chaos. Once the unification bout is done, the division will finally, hopefully, have a champion ready to defend on a regular basis.
But there’s been some talk about McGregor’s potential retirement again lately. Having said he’ll not fight without a promoter’s stake, and Dana White shooting him down, perhaps fans are putting 2 + 2 together.
Given his huge bank account, nobody would blame McGregor if he decided to become a man of leisure. According to ‘The Notorious,’ as per MMAFighting.com, his retirement has nothing to do with money or age:
All About Damage
“I’m 29 years of age and I have climbed to the very, very, very top and with…not with relative ease…I’ve put in a lot of hard work, I’ve put in crazy amounts of hard work and most people do not see the wars upon wars in the gym just to get to the fight.
“I’ve gone through strenuous camp, after camp, after camp, but still – compared to other people in the fight game – I’m still relatively undamaged. Never been dropped. I was wobbled once. In the Mayweather fight, it was fatigue – I wasn’t wobbled, I didn’t see stars once.
“The only time I was ever wobbled once in a contest was in the Diaz 1 fight. And that’s it…it’s the only heavy shot I’ve ever taken. I’ve continued to climb and I’m still very young in the game. Although I’ve climbed to the top, I’m still very young from a damage-taking standpoint, so I will continue to see where it goes.”
Continue reading below…
“I have multiple titles in the UFC,” said McGregor. “I’ve multiple contenders that are clawing at the top trying to get at me, so we’re in negotiation stages and we will see where we go.
“I’ll most certainly compete again for the next couple of years anyway and then I’ll see where it is.”
“I could cut it off yesterday, you know what I mean? I don’t really have a date and a time and an age because I use it from a damage-taking standpoint.
“How many blows have I taken? That’s the true danger in combat sport.”
