Conor McGregor shocked the entire mixed martial arts (MMA) community and beyond by taking to his Twitter account Tuesday afternoon to inexplicably tweet that he's retiring.
Within minutes, it set off a firestorm of reaction with critics speculating whether the UFC fighter was just making a joke or really meant that he was walking away from the Octagon for good.
Nate Diaz, who made McGregor tap out to a rear-naked choke last month, chimed in with a rather sarcastic tweet of his own.
I guess my work here is done I'm retiring too
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) April 19, 2016
Remember, Diaz was slated to face McGregor in a rematch at UFC 200 on July 9 in Las Vegas.
CM Punk added his own take by tweeting, "Well f*** it, I have decided to retire old. Thanks for the shoes @Reebok."
All joking aside, McGregor would learn the dangers of tweeting off of pure emotion ... and he learned it sooner than he might have thought.
Within hours of McGregor tweeting his retirement, UFC president Dana White appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter with the arguable real story — Conor didn't want to fulfill mandatory media obligations to promote the fight.
"We pulled Conor McGregor from UFC 200 and we're working on other fights right now," White said. "Conor did not want to come to Las Vegas and film the commercial and be a part of the marketing. He's in Iceland training.
"Is Conor retiring?" White continued. "Only he can answer that question. I don't know."
The UFC has been in this position before, and oddly enough, it involved Diaz's older brother, Nick Diaz. When Nick skipped a press conference, the UFC scrapped his scheduled 2011 title fight against Georges St-Pierre.
Now, whether McGregor was sincere with his tweet remains to be seen, though, it certainly appears as if he tweeted out of anger and frustration. Look, we get it ... McGregor may have engaged in too much smack-talk with Diaz and lost the fight.
To get himself back into the game, he escaped to Iceland, of all places — to train for the rematch in an attempt to avenge his loss and get back on track. He's locked in on his training, and that's how it should be.
Then again, there's no special treatment. The UFC, as a business, needs McGregor to take part in its promotional videos to hype up the fight to the point where it maximizes potential pay-per-view purchases. Without his presence at these required media events, the UFC just can't do it.
McGregor has until the end of this week to tell White what he wants to do. Let's see how this transpires.
Either way, McGregor has learned a valuable lesson about tweeting.
