John Kavanagh Asked If Conor McGregor Has 'Truly Retired' From MMA

Conor McGregor's coach believes that the Irish superstar is through with MMA as 'far as he can tell' and not even he could convince him to return.

McGregor, 31, confirmed his third retirement in the space of fours years after he made his bombshell announcement on social media earlier this month.

But speculation has continued to mount that the future UFC Hall of Famer could make a U-turn on his retirement and return to the octagon.

When he was asked if McGregor was officially retired, John Kavanagh said on MMA World: "Is Conor retired? Yes, he is as far as I can tell. That's what he said, isn't it?"

Another person followed up by suggesting only Kavanagh could convince McGregor to return to the sport.

But McGregor's coach laughed and said that he couldn't "convince Conor to do s**t."

Kavanagh added: "Conor will tell Conor what he's gonna do. And who knows? Who knows what's gonna happen in the future. But, as for now, he's retired."

The 43-year-old Irish coach dropped a teasing hint that McGregor could return to the UFC by making an interesting comparison with basketball icon Michael Jordan.

McGregor, who successfully defeated Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 back in January, admitted that he is no longer 'excited' about fighting in MMA.

"The game just does not excite me, and that's that," he said.

"All this waiting around. There's nothing happening. I'm going through opponent options, and there's nothing really there at the minute. There's nothing that's exciting me.

"They should have just kept the ball rolling. I mean, why are they pushing [Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Justin Gaethje] back to September?

"You know what's going to happen in September, something else is going to happen in September, and that's not going to happen. I laid out a plan and a method that was the right move, the right methods to go with.

"And they always want to baulk at that and not make it happen or just drag it on. Whatever I say, they want to go against it to show some kind of power. They should have just done the fight -- me and Justin for the interim title -- and just kept the ball rolling."

Featured Image Credit: MMA World/PA

Topics: Conor Mcgregor, Notorious, UFC News, MMA News, John Kavanagh, UFC, MMA

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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