Despite announcing his early retirement on Twitter, journalist Philip O'Connor believes there is every chance that Conor McGregor will be back in action later this year in New York.
It's been an interesting 24 hours for those who follow Mixed Martial Arts. McGregor tweeted that he had "decided to retire young", while his coach John Kavanagh followed that up with a “fun while it lasted” tweet himself.
I have decided to retire young.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 19, 2016
Thanks for the cheese.
Catch ya's later.
A follow on from all that saw UFC president Dana White announce that the Dubliner will now not be taking part in UFC 200 and won't be involved in a rematch with Nate Diaz on 9 July, the only man to beat him in a UFC bout.
There is obviously a power struggle of sorts going on, but despite all that, Philip O'Connor would not be surprised to see McGregor get back in the cage.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland, O'Connor said: "McGregor did say I'm going to retire young, not retire now.
"I suspect this might be a bit of a power struggle because Conor is the biggest fighter in the sport at the moment"
"I think this may very well end with a contest in New York in November.
"Mixed Martial Arts and the UFC are now allowed to fight in New York, they've had a long legal battle to do so.
"Even if Conor does retire, UFC is full of comebacks and it wouldn't surprise me if Conor's comeback is in Madison Square Garden in November."
Explaining the latest stand-off, O'Connor added: "I suspect this might be a bit of a power struggle because Conor is the biggest fighter in the sport at the moment, notwithstanding his loss to Diaz in March.
"Dana White is the boss of the organisation. Conor, I think, was looking for a bit of special treatment. He doesn't really enjoy the whole media circus, even though he does get up there with the microphone and gives it his best.
"He's probably prefers to be training, so I'm sure he went to Dana looking for some sort of preferential treatment and you just don't get that. The UFC is known in the business as 'The Company' and when you work for 'The Company' you've got to show up to work.
"A major part of their revenue is pay-per-view and that's helped along by the kind of media work that Conor would be expected to have done in Las Vegas.
"We have had a Mexican stand-off, Dana called his bluff and Conor put that tweet out there. I'd say this story is far from over."
