Conor McGregor posts on Facebook he’s not retiring, just wants to fight

Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar Conor McGregor used less than half the allotted characters of a tweet to announce his retirement Tuesday.

Two days later, McGregor issued a manifesto explaining his frustration with the UFC’s promotional demands and its effects on his training.

What was made clear in Thursday’s statement posted on Facebook is McGregor certainly isn’t done fighting.

“I AM NOT RETIRED,” the featherweight champion concluded in his post.

UFC president Dana White did not respond to texts for comment about McGregor’s statement.

A power struggle between McGregor and the organization became public Tuesday night when White announced McGregor would be pulled from a welterweight rematch against Nate Diaz on the historic UFC 200 card July 9 at T-Mobile Arena because he would not travel to Las Vegas to fulfill his promotional schedule.

McGregor chose to remain in Iceland to train for the fight. According to his statement, he offered to fly to New York for a news conference so he could quickly get back to his camp.

The UFC wanted to use the platform of Saturday’s massive UFC 197 card at the MGM Grand Garden as a showcase to kick off the hype for UFC 200. It had planned for McGregor to appear at a Friday news conference in Las Vegas with the other fighters on the UFC 200 card. A commercial shoot also was in the works.

McGregor then was scheduled to appear at a news conference in Diaz’s hometown of Stockton, California, before the New York appearance.

McGregor said he thinks the promotional appearances have led to a lack of focus during fights and that they were partly to blame for his loss to Diaz by second-round submission in March at the Grand Garden.

“I am just trying to do my job and fight here,” McGregor wrote. “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.

“Fifty 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.”

McGregor said he thinks he gets more promotional responsibilities than other fighters, specifically pointing out that he carried the promotion when Diaz stepped in as a late replacement for Rafael dos Anjos.

“I am facing a taller, longer and heavier man,” he wrote. “I need to prepare correctly this time. I can not dance for you this time. It is time for the other monkeys to dance. I’ve danced us all the way here. Nate’s little mush head looks good up on that stage these days. Stuff him in front of the camera for it. He came in with no (expletive) to do that last one. I’d already done press conferences, interviews and shot the ads before (dos Anjos) pulled out. I’m doing what I need for me now. It is time to be selfish with my training again. It is the only way.

“I feel the $400 million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside eight months, is enough to get me this slight leeway.”

White has said he never believed McGregor was retiring. In an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Tuesday, White said the star fighter simply needed to fulfill his promotional obligations.

“At the end of the day, I respect Conor,” White said. “He’s a guy who has stepped up on short notice and literally saved the show at times. But it doesn’t make you exempt from showing up from press conferences and all the promotional stuff you have to do. We spent a lot of money on this stuff. It’s mandatory.”

McGregor estimated that his retirement tweet generated three times the promotional value of any news conference. As of Thursday night, the tweet had been retweeted 165,000 times.

Former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will return to the cage for the first time since January 2015 when he takes on Ovince Saint Preux for the interim title in the main event Saturday.

Jones was stripped of his belt last year after being charged in a hit-and-run accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

He was also once sharply criticized by White for refusing to accept a replacement opponent on a week’s notice, a dispute that led to the cancellation of UFC 151 in 2012.

Jones spoke in support of McGregor on Wednesday, before the lengthy statement was posted.

“Hats off to him for standing up for what he thinks is right,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, business is business. The guy obviously has respect for himself and his talents and fights like this will help fighters in the future, so I respect his willingness to fight for what’s right.”

Not all of McGregor’s colleagues were as supportive.

Although the power struggle could be viewed as a superstar standing up for the rights of the fighters against a commanding force, some of his colleagues were far from united in support of McGregor.

Henry Cejudo, an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling for the United States who will challenge Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight title on Saturday, backed the organization.

“I think it’s good for the UFC,” Cejudo said of pulling McGregor from the card. “They need to step up and start doing things like that. If you think you’re higher than the UFC and better than all of the other fighters, maybe you should get pulled.

“I think that’s good discipline.”

McGregor has become one of the UFC’s biggest attractions ever, largely based on his brilliant public appearances. He said he still wants to fight Diaz at UFC 200 — as long as he gets an amended promotional schedule.

“I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting,” he wrote. “There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.”

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj