Dana White Makes Stunning Claim About Conor McGregor's Shock Retirement

Conor McGregor was given a chance to fight in UFC 249's main event according to Dana White - with the Irishman declining the offer.

McGregor shocked the MMA world last weekend when he announced his retirement for the third time in four years.

The Irishman explained that the fight game did not 'excite' him and that he wasn't thrilled with his potential opponents.

But UFC president White has hit back and claimed 'The Notorious' was given the chance to fight last month.

"He wants to fight [Justin] Gaethje. Gaethje just won to get the fight with Khabib [Nurmagomedov]," White explained to ESPN's First Take per MMA Fighting on Tuesday.

"He just beat Tony Ferguson. Conor had the opportunity to slide into that spot if Khabib or Tony fell out.

"He came back and said 'I'm not a replacement fighter, I'm not going to do it.' He would be in that position now if he took the fight. He didn't, Gaethje did so Gaethje gets it."

McGregor is one of MMA's biggest stars and last fought in January when he swiftly defeated Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.

Despite the 31-year-old being a megastar in and out of the octagon, White is refusing to budge on his demands.

"Conor McGregor is frustrated right now because I mean look what's going on," White added.

"Look at what we're pulling off. We're literally just going to Yas Island right now to pull off these fights because the hardest thing to do right now is to get people into the country from other parts of the world.

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"We are a true global business. We're the only one pulling off live sports right now. If I continue to do fights in the United States, I'm going to burn out all my American talent.

"Now we got Yas Island ready to go, it's set up. This is just a matter of Conor being frustrated I think in that he can't get what he wants right now. It's just not possible."

White also officially unveiled 'Fight Island' on Tuesday, with a stacked UFC 251 card also announced.

Topics: Conor Mcgregor, Justin Gaethje, UFC News, MMA News, UFC, MMA, Dana White

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

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