McGregor: I almost quit MMA two years ago
Conor McGregor: “So I sat back and had essentially walked away from the sport. I was out of the gym for maybe three, four weeks, which is … I am never out of the gym…”
A little more than two years ago, Conor McGregor was an unknown prospect in local British promotions with no indication the UFC was interested. Now he is undefeated in the UFC and promoting what is definitely the biggest featherweight title fight in UFC history:
“There’s many ups and downs in the fight game,” he said. “There’s many times where you have these conversations where you want to do it, you don’t want to do it.”
Asked when he decided to finally give MMA his all, McGregor said that the moment came as a surprise to him, not long after his lowest point in MMA.
“It was when I originally signed with the UFC,” he said.
McGregor, just 24 years old at the time, had compiled an excellent 12-2 record, including major European titles at two weight classes in the spring of 2013. Even so, he was not making much money fighting, and a close friend and teammate had just been rendered unable to compete because of damage sustained fighting.
“As you know, outside the UFC, (MMA fighting) is not financially secure,” McGregor said.
“So, I was unsure of what to do. A longtime teammate of mine had got some bad news from too many wars inside the Octagon. So, you know, I sat back, and the UFC had not called at this stage where I had two gold belts wrapped around my waist, and I was thinking, ‘I don’t think I want to do this. Maybe, maybe this is not for me.’ If this happened to my friend, who came up with me in the game and now he cannot compete anymore… And he is UFC-caliber, also. But he never got his opportunity. So I sat back and had essentially walked away from the sport. I was out of the gym for maybe three, four weeks, which is … I am never out of the gym for three to four weeks.”
