Conor McGregor announced early Monday morning that he is back on the UFC 200 card, but there has been no official word from the UFC itself. Is McGregor lying, or was his tweet simply a bit premature?
McGregor, who has taken his battle with the UFC over fight promotion public, tweeted the following:
Happy to announce that I am BACK on UFC 200!
Shout out to @danawhite and @lorenzofertitta on getting this one done for the fans. #Respect— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 25, 2016
Typically, the UFC likes to be first on announcements of this nature. While that would be a pretty big story for McGregor to make up, John Morgan of MMA Junkie reports that nothing has changed and McGregor still isn’t scheduled to fight at UFC 200.
Multiple sources I have spoken with so far indicated nothing changed in regard to Conor’s exclusion from UFC 200. Nothing from his team yet.
— John Morgan (@MMAjunkieJohn) April 25, 2016
As MMA Junkie notes, this could be part of McGregor’s plan to put pressure on the UFC. He also tweeted about a fight that never ended up taking place back in 2014.
It's not the first time Conor McGregor has tweeted about a fight which did not take place. pic.twitter.com/b9YPvEOSHU
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) April 25, 2016
This all started last week when McGregor shocked MMA fans by claiming he has decided to retire. He later revealed that he asked Dana White and the UFC to grant him some leeway with promoting his upcoming rematch against Nate Diaz, as McGregor wants to focus more on training. It’s almost bizarre to see McGregor thanking White and UFC chairman and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta after he unloaded on the organization in this Facebook post.
McGregor’s tweet on Monday didn’t specify whether he is back on the UFC 200 card to fight Diaz, though it seems unlikely that he would accept anything less. As of writing this post, the UFC’s website still said the main event at UFC 200 is “to be announced.”
