Understand the controversy that culminated in McGregor's departure from UFC 200

McGregor (photo) was cut from the biggest event of the year. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC

The world of MMA was shocked this Tuesday (19), first with the announcement that Conor McGregor was supposedly retiring prematurely from the sport and, shortly thereafter, that the Irishman was cut from UFC 200, the main event on the organization's calendar in 2016 in which he would face Nate diaz. But what exactly happened to make the situation reach this point? O SUPER FIGHTS clarifies it for you.

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According to President Dana White himself, Conor McGregor, who is currently part of his training camp in Iceland, was cut from UFC 200 after refusing to participate in a press conference and some other promotional events for the card in Las Vegas (USA).

According to North American columnist Kevin Iole, from the website “Yahoo! Sports”, Ultimate's intention was for McGregor to spend the next two weeks in the United States promoting the historic event, alongside Nate diaz and the other stars on the card – some of them, in fact, are already in the country.

However, McGregor reportedly even refused to attend the press conference scheduled for next Friday (22), before the UFC 197 weigh-in. Dana White's ultimatum to the featherweight champion came on Monday (18), but Conor stood firm in his position and said he would travel almost 40 hours (round trip between Iceland and the USA) for the press conference.

To the Irish newspaper “The Independent”, the father of Conor McGregor he said he discussed the matter with his son, but preferred not to reveal the content of the conversation. “The last thing we heard was that he retired. This is the latest information we have. The news reached us through social media, and we found out the same way as everyone else. I spoke to him, but I can't reveal anything about what we said. Conor is in Iceland training. If you want, go there and talk to him,” he said.

The big unknown in the entire story so far, however, is whether McGregor will actually hang up his gloves or not. The Irishman said he would retire early (but didn't specify whether "early" meant immediately), but has since made no public comment on the matter.