Issue 178

May 2019

Has Conor McGregor called it a day on MMA ?

Good to see the great Canadian, GSP retire. And Brazilian legend Jose Aldo talks of doing the same by the end of 2019. Then there is Stefan Struve come to that. The giant Dutchman, 31, has been at it in one of the most unforgiving divisions in sport since the age of 19. Speaking as an admirer of his work, BJ Penn should be doing the same very soon. Then Shogun, Fedor, and Mirko . . . forced into retirement just two weeks after fighting Roy Nelson on medical grounds. It was a stroke. Thank God it was not worse, and that he has seen sense.

But have we seen the retirement of Conor McGregor, now a ghost in the sport, hitting on social media to thank people, congratulate fellow fighters, and promote his Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey brand? Am I wrong in thinking it's a tad premature, that there is an element of greatness not yet reached? A reserve not yet tapped. McGregor, now 31 years old, has had one MMA fight in two and a half years, since becoming a champ-champ in the UFC by claiming featherweight and lightweight belts as well as his debut professional boxing match in a mega-event with Floyd Mayweather. McGregor has grossed an estimated at $150 million from those two fights, an extraordinary sum, and perhaps the desire to fight on has withered.

It's now almost six months since McGregor was handed a beating by Khabib Nurmagomedov, and if we are to see a rematch with the Russian, it sure does not seem as if any moves are being made. And his coach, John Kavanagh, has ceased telling all and sundry that the Irishman is back in the SBG gym whenever he is around. The rumor mill reckons that Kavanagh, now deeply involved with a raft of new fighters, and allied closely with the growth of Bellator MMA in Europe, may never coach McGregor again.

All partnerships in fight sports must come to an end, and the brilliant pairing of these two men, so different, but so complementary, may have run its course. We can only look back with fondness at the pioneering way they took MMA to levels never seen before in Europe. What a ride it was. Kavanagh was the perfect foil for McGregor, never attention greedy, happy to be in the background, diligently working away.

If it is the last of The Notorious – at least as a fighting Celtic warrior – then what a whirlwind, what a rise and what an exit. Yes, we are all too aware that McGregor has earned enough to capsize the economy of a small island, through his brilliance in the cage and his innate marketing nous outside it. But has the right man, in the right place at the right time with the right personality and skills as a fighter, marked the end of his professional fighting life? If so, then he is to be praised for making the decision. His health is intact, his resonance globally can be harnessed into a number of different businesses and ventures, and yet are we all left with the feeling that we could have seen more from him in the fighting arena?

There have been fights teased with Khabib, Donald Cerrone, and a trilogy contest with Nate Diaz. There have been the call-outs to numerous other fighters. But do we just get the sense that the hunger has gone, the game he played is complete, after 25 mixed martial arts fights in which he truly showed that he was a one-off ?