To Dana White, Conor McGregor isn't returning to the Octagon - at least not this year.
After McGregor announced he was retiring from fighting in June, the UFC president guaranteed Monday
that "The Notorious" won't fight again in 2020.
"This year, he's retired," White said on the "My Mom's Basement" podcast, according to John Morgan of MMA Junkie. "He doesn't have a fight this year and he won't have a fight this year.
"Conor McGregor will not fight in 2020."
McGregor said he decided to call it a career because "there's nothing that's exciting me." Many fighters didn't buy McGregor's announcement, and White recently said he wouldn't be surprised if the former two-division champion wants to fight in 2021.
But until McGregor returns, he's off of White's business radar.
"Do we all believe he'll stay retired?" White said. "I think most of us don't believe that he'll remain retired, but let me put it to you this way: I owe fighters that are under contract with me three fights a year, OK? If I don't deliver those three fights a year, I have to pay them. Conor McGregor is retired, whether people want to believe it or not.
"He is not fighting right now, so when he's not fighting, I don't even think about him or what he's doing or any of that stuff on a business level. I'll still shoot him a text personally, but on a business level, he's out of the mix."
McGregor last fought in January at UFC 246, returning from a 15-month layoff with a 40-second win against Donald Cerrone.
