If you believe Conor McGregor, he's back on the UFC 200 card.
The Dubliner tweeted this morning thanking Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta for giving the fans what they wanted and reinstating him for July 9th.
His claim has been met with plenty of scepticism though. It could simply be a negotiating tactic from McGregor.
It's less than a week since he stated that he had retired from MMA and was subsequently pulled from the UFC 200 card.
The fuss was all regarding a Las Vegas press conference which McGregor did not want to attend. Dana White declared that rules could not be bent and because of his refusal the Irishman would not fight Nate Diaz.
In his column for The42.ie, McGregor's coach John Kavanagh outlined why they opposed doing the media event.
Shortly after we arrived in Portugal a couple of weeks ago for some training, we learned that the UFC wanted Conor to be in Vegas this past Friday for a press conference. Having put a meticulous plan in place for Conor’s preparations for the fight, this didn’t suit us at all.
Negotiations to get Conor out of the press conference then began, because we had just started the first of three important cycles of training. Going over to Vegas would have completely destroyed that. Do you want to see Conor’s best performances or hear his best soundbites?
McGregor offered the middle ground of doing the press conference via Skype. This option was not accepted by the UFC.
Picture credit: Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE
