Dana White reacts after Conor McGregor announces his retirement from fighting

UFC president Dana White reacted to Conor McGregor’s surprising announcement that he is retiring from mixed martial arts following UFC 250.

McGregor sent out a Tweet immediately following last night’s pay-per-view card that indicated he is planning on retiring. It’s not the first time McGregor has sent out a Tweet saying he is retiring, and every time he has said in the past he’s hanging up his gloves he’s eventually returned to the Octagon.

McGregor knocked out Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 in January and since then has sat on the sidelines while the lightweight division has sorted itself out. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it makes it hard for the UFC to book McGregor due to international travel restrictions. The hope is McGregor can compete at Fight Island, but it’s not ready for a few more weeks.

If you ask White, this most recent retirement announcement is all about McGregor being frustrated that he isn’t booked to fight anytime soon. Here’s what White told the media following UFC 250 in regards to McGregor’s announcement.

Dana talks Conor.

Says Nunes is doing well and getting a piece of the PPV.#UFC pic.twitter.com/IuIRul1aqs

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) June 7, 2020

“He’s been wanting to fight. He’s frustrated because he wants to fight. I’m sure that’s a piece of it,” Dana White said.

“It’s not that we can’t have him fight, but who do you want to fight right now? Do you want to fight Ferguson? He called out Masvidal. Masvidal, ok, you know, who do you fight right now? And where do we fight Conor McGregor right now? Fight Island isn’t even up and running until July. So if you look at all the problems to run a business like this, multiply it by a f*cking million and that’s where we are right now. And there’s a lot of other shit that goes on behind the scenes right now that, you know, it’s a wacky time to be the first guy putting on live sports when a lot of f*cking people who are nutty as hell didn’t want you to.”

Do you think Conor McGregor will actually retire?