Conor McGregor is officially out of UFC 200.
UFC President Dana White announced on ESPN’s Sportcenter Tuesday night that they have pulled McGregor from the event after he refused to fly out to Las Vegas for media events scheduled this week for UFC 200. McGregor himself Tweeted out on Tuesday afternoon that he was retiring young, leaving nothing but questions as to his reasoning. Those questions haven’t been answered, but he will not headline UFC 200.
According to White, Diaz is on his way to Las Vegas for this week’s press events for the July 9 event, and they’re going to work on setting him up with a new fight on that event. Additionally, they’re working on another significant bout for the card. As of now, the top booked fights on the card are the Interim Featherweight Championship bout between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar and the Women’s Bantamweight Championship bout between Miesha Tate and Amanda Nunes.
Penick’s Analysis: This is insanity. What’s somewhat ironic given the opponent involved is that they did something similar to Nate’s brother Nick when he refused to show up for a press event into the first scheduled matchup with Georges St-Pierre. There’s likely more to this story that isn’t being said, and if McGregor perhaps demanded more money from them only to have his bluff called, that’s a massive risk on the UFC’s part from a business perspective. Almost nothing they can book for this card will be nearly as big as McGregor in the main event, even despite the loss to Diaz last month. Still, getting Diaz a significant fight after his win is still a must, and if they can put together something else significant soon that could help cut some of the losses they’ll see. It’s crazy that it’s happened, regardless, and we still don’t know whether retirement is legitimately what he’s doing here, or if there’s something more behind this.
[Photo (c) Mark J. Rebilas via USA Today Sports]
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