What do we make of the Conor McGregor retirement fiasco?

“I’m not surprised, mother*******!”

Conor McGregor has alluded previously in interviews that he has toyed with the idea of retirement before

Almost in keeping with Nate Diaz’s post fight Octagon interview for the ages after he choked out Conor McGregor at UFC 196, are we really caught off guard that it has come to this?

By his own admission, Conor McGregor has seriously flirted with the idea of retirement in his career before, not least when he was still fighting in Cage Warriors as a two weight world champion and awaiting the call-up from the UFC. A call that he had then resigned to himself, would never arrive.

For all intents and purposes then, his UFC journey has already been the second wind of sorts in his sails; a shot in the arm when all the chips were down.

And in addition to that, when quizzed upon his goals in the UFC, he has stated in previous interviews that he intends to “Get in, get the belts, get the money and get out!”

Could these retirement talks then be borne out of Mystic Mac just making good out of yet another one of his prophecies?

Normally we wouldn’t expect fighters to get out when they are in the fighting prime of their lives. But are we truly surprised at this development given that he is anything but a “normally” fighter?

For a man that set the UFC ablaze, scything through the MMA landscape like a shooting star, perhaps it only begets poetic justice that he also chose to vanish from the scene with a bang, not unlike the manner in which he appeared.

Far-fetched as it may seem, in Conor McGregor’s case, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising.