Just because he’s agreed to show up, doesn’t mean that Conor McGregor’s battle with the UFC over media obligations isn’t over.
In April this year, the Irish Featherweight-turned-Lightweight-turned-Welterweight had a very public falling out with the UFC brass over media appearances for the upcoming mega-event UFC 200. Scheduled to face Nate Diaz in a rematch on that card, McGregor and the UFC came to disagreements over the amount of media obligations he was set to meet.
At the time, the UFC had McGregor flying from training in Iceland to Las Vegas, Stockton and New York for various press conferences and television interviews. McGregor refused to attend, as he felt he required more training to prepare for the rematch with Diaz and avenge the defeat.
The disagreement became public when McGregor took to Twitter to suddenly announce his retirement from the sport.
“There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop,” McGregor said in a Facebook statement following the infamous Tweet. “50 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.”
That saga finally ended with the UFC pulling McGregor-Diaz from the card, and replacing them with a Light Heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. The McGregor fight was later rescheduled for UFC 202 in August.
And yet…
At an event to promote the release of his coach John Kavanagh’s new book “Win or Learn,” McGregor stated that the conversation with the UFC regarding what constitutes as ‘reasonable media’ is ongoing.
“We’re still back and forth with media obligations,” McGregor said. “It’s going on right to this second. It’s never-ending. They want to pull you left and right.”
McGregor, who has arguably done more media than anyone else in the sport (with perhaps the exception of Ronda Rousey), maintains that the constant media is a hinderance to his career. This is not a new message from the Irishman, even following the victory over Chad Mendes he mentioned how hard his media showings were.
“I think some people don’t understand how taxing that is,” McGregor said. “Especially coming after a loss like that where I really truly need to look out for me and get myself right and come out the way I need to feel.
“I can’t fatigue like that and live with myself after that. Seeing the way the last fight happened, I can’t live with it. I need to isolate myself and just get my work in and come back and get my revenge. And that’s what I’m doing.”
McGregor and Diaz are set to be at a press conference to promote their rematch on July 7, just two days before UFC 200, the event from which they were pulled. Whether McGregor will be there, though, appears to still be up to him.
