Opinion: What Did Conor McGregor’s ESPN Interview Tell Us?

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.Conor McGregor in a sitdown interview with ESPN’s Kenny Mayne over the weekend finally broke his silence on the myriad of issues that led to his removal from UFC 200. The topics ranged from his perspective on what exactly transpired and led to his no longer facing Nate Diaz at the July 9 event to addressing rumors of a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. What did we learn about the situation and, more importantly, the relationship between the Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight titleholder and the promotion for which he fights? Well, we didn’t learn too much more than what we already knew. McGregor appears to regret not sucking it up and flying to Las Vegas for the UFC 200 press conference. However, he doesn’t appear to regret the decision as much as he regrets not being able to compete on that particular card and cash in on what would likely have been a massive payday. He doesn’t necessarily feel that he did anything wrong and doesn’t appear to be all that upset about the decision to take him out of the UFC 200 main event. It seems McGregor was more or less calling UFC President Dana White’s bluff by sticking to his guns and not making the trip to Vegas; and the way he tells it sounds like someone who had his bluff called. “I’ll tell you what, it blew up,” McGregor said in regards to the tweet that stated he was retiring early, admitting it was something about which he didn’t think very deeply. “I was kind of having fun to start, half-hearted. Then all of a sudden it’s, ‘You’re off 200!’ I was like, ‘All right, well [expletive] you, too, then.’” This isn’t a man who feels bad about …

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