Conor McGregor: Khabib Nurmagomedov claim made about UFC retirement – Notorious KNOWS it

That’s the claim of ESPN sports analyst David Jacoby in light of McGregor’s shock retirement from mixed martial arts this week.

In a surprise Twitter post in the early of Tuesday morning, the Irishman declared he had “decided to retire from the sport formally known as ‘Mixed Martial Art’ today”.

Many have questioned whether or not ‘The Notorious’ has truly decided to walk away from the fight game having previously called an early retirement in 2016 due to a feud with the promotion over his participation in a media tour for UFC 200.

McGregor returned later the same year after coming to an agreement with the UFC.

And it has been claimed that the 30-year-old’s latest ‘retirement’ is merely a negotiating tactic, having spoken of his desire to fight again in July with Nate Diaz mentioned as a potential rival. 

The former two-division champion has not fought since losing convincingly to Khabib back in October at UFC 229, with the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas witnessing a huge post-fight brawl between the two fighter’s camps after McGregor tapped out.

It has been claimed that McGregor wants a rematch against the unbeaten Dagestan wrestler, who took his lightweight title with a dominant performance inside the octagon.

Yet Jacoby believes the nature of McGregor’s defeat to Nurmagomedov means the superstar will never be involved in championship-level fights again and that there will never be a rematch between the pair.

Speaking on ESPN show Jalen & Jacoby, he said: “It is notable that the casual way he said it, ‘quick announcement’, talked about Proper Pina Coladas at the end.

“It doesn’t feel like he went to somebody, prepared a statement, had a press conference and went out the way you see athletes want to go out because they kind of want to be celebrated. 

“This kind of felt like, ‘Yeah I retired *wink*’ the way Jay-Z retires every two years. 

“I love Conor McGregor as a personality, I really do. 

“But as a fighter – like Ronda Rousey before him – one of the most dominant, just dominant, UFC fighters you’ve seen. 

“All of a sudden he loses, then loses again. 

“You saw that fight against Khabib and I was like, ‘He’s not just being beaten now [he’s being beaten badly].’ 

“Him and Nate Diaz had a really nice trilogy [set up], they were going back and forth and had bloody fights but the Khabib fight was like, ‘Oh no, he cannot compete against this man. There’s no rematch to be had here.’ 

“I think he knows that as well and he will not enter those kind of fights and compete at that level of the UFC again.”

Discussing McGregor’s decision to walk away, UFC president Dana White admitted to TMZ Sports: “I was surprised. It came out of nowhere.

“A lot of people were speculating that it was posturing because of negotiations but we really haven’t been negotiating that hard.

“He sent me a text and he said ‘I feel like I should own a piece of the company,’ and I said ‘Conor you know that’s never going to happen’.

“Listen if you want to own a piece of the company, you have to put up the money to buy a piece of the company – that’s how it works.

“If you wanted to buy into the UFC right now, the valuation is pretty huge.”

source: express.co.uk