Report: McGregor To Take Extended Time Off After UFC 205

Much speculation has been made as to the announcement expected to be made by UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor after his next Octagon appearance at UFC 205.

McGregor was granted a lightweight title opportunity against current 155-pound title holder Eddie Alvarez in the main event of the massive Madison Square Garden event, a decision that UFC President Dana White admitted was unfair to interim featherweight champ Jose Aldo and No. 1-ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov:

“Listen, I battled this thing forever. Not only is it not fair to Jose Aldo, it’s not fair to Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and Max Holloway. So, believe me, I battled with this thing but there are . . how can I say this? There are other circumstances involved in this that will be played out after the fight. It’s something completely out of left-field but it’s Conor’s business, it’s not mine, and I’ll let Conor announce it when he’s ready to.”

According to a report from The Irish Sun newspaper, a source close to the Irish champ told them that McGregor is planning to ‘spawn a few world champions’ with longtime girlfriend Dee Devlin, and is ‘determined to take time out’ to settle down with her:

“And after UFC 205 is the perfect time to start. He’s telling people he wants time out. It’s unlikely to be permanent, but the time is right to step back for a while. He knows that if he wins UFC 205 he can always come back in a year or two for a mega money fight. He could name his price. He’ll be back.”

Despite reports that ‘The Notorious One’ is planning on walking away from the sport altogether, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani says otherwise noting that he can ‘assure’ MMA fans McGregor is not walking away:

“He probably would have preferred if Dana didn’t make this sort of vague statement. But I can assure you he’s not retiring.”

Irish MMA Journalist Niall McGrath chimed in as well stating that he wouldn’t be shocked at all if McGregor decided to take some time off from fighting, but notes talk of McGregor wanting to start a family as nothing more than ‘rumours’ at the moment:

“There’s been a lot of speculation that Conor is going to be taking time off and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. It’s been a long three years for him when you look at the number of fights he’s had — this will be his tenth UFC fight and you’ve also to remember that he missed a year through injury.

“There’s been rumours about wanting to start a family with Dee and settle down after UFC 205 but that’s all they are at the moment. Rumours. I’m not sure if he’ll take a full year off, he’s a prize fighter and he’s money-hungry as we all know.”

The Irish Sun also notes that McGregor’s representatives did not return they’re request for comment on the story.