Conor McGregor retired because he's 'bored,' 'tired,' and just not excited by the fight game anymore
- Conor McGregor has lost motivation at the options presented to him by the UFC.
- The 31-year-old Irishman was interested in an interim lightweight championship match against Justin Gaethje, and a super-fight with Anderson Silva.
- But told ESPN he has retired because he's "bored" of the fight game in its current state, and criticized the UFC for not supporting the goals he had planned for 2020.
- "The game does not excite me," he said. "I'm just over it, man."
Conor McGregor retired because he's "bored," "tired," and just not excited by the fight game anymore.
That's what the former two-weight UFC champion told ESPN hours after announcing he was backing away from the sport in a Twitter post Sunday.
"The game just does not excite me, and that's that," McGregor told the ESPN MMA reporter Ariel Helwani.
"All this waiting around. There's nothing happening. I'm going through opponent options, and there's nothing really there at the minute. There's nothing that's exciting me.
"I had my goals, my plans, the season. I had everything laid out," McGregor said, adding that the world being in lockdown means there's "f--- all happening."
He said: "[The UFC] want to throw me up and down weights and offer me stupid fights. I don't give a f---. I'm over it."
It represents are drastic turnaround as the 31-year-old had been linked with a lightweight match against Justin Gaethje before the coronavirus pandemic ground the sport to a temporary halt.
Last month, he had been texting the UFC boss Dana White, asking him to compete at "Fight Island" — a mystery island the UFC has leased to hold international fights from June 27.
More recently, McGregor accepted Anderson Silva's challenge to a UFC super-fight.
Silva, a former long-reigning UFC middleweight champion, would have been McGregor's tallest, biggest, and rangiest opponent to date.
The Brazilian proposed it, McGregor accepted it, but the idea was quashed by White within days.
Now, the Irishman appears to have lost his motivation to fight.
"Why are they pushing [Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje] back to September? I laid out a plan and a method that was the right move, the right methods to go with," McGregor said.
"And they always want to balk at that and not make it happen or just drag it on. Whatever I say, they want to go against it to show some kind of power.
"They should have just done the fight — me and Justin for the interim title — and just kept the ball rolling."
McGregor told ESPN that he had been watching UFC 250, a behind-closed-doors show at the UFC-owned Apex facility in Las Vegas, but was left feeling uninspired.
He said it could have been affected by the lack of atmosphere because there were no fans in attendance.
"I'm a bit bored of the game. I don't know if it's no crowd, I don't know what it is … There's just no buzz for me," he said.
"I'm trying to get excited," he added. "I'm trying my best. And when the Anderson one came along, I was like, yeah, s---, that's a mad fight. And then everyone said he's old and over the hill.
"I would go in there and put him away, and then what would happen? They'd say he's old and he's over the hill and he's past his prime and all.
"I'm just over it, man."
Read more: