While Conor McGregor may have had a pay-per view interview this past weekend to discuss his future plans in the Octagon, talks ultimately shifted to Ronda Rousey. Leading up to UFC 207, where Ronda Rousey made her highly anticipated return to the Octagon following the first defeat of her professional career at the hands of Holly Holm in October of 2015, the former champ was granted permission from the UFC to skip out on her media obligations and focus solely on training.
This didn’t go over too well with many fight fans, who criticized the UFC for allowing Rousey to skip out on her media obligations, when UFC champion Conor McGregor was pulled from his UFC 200 fight with Nate Diaz just months prior due to refusing to fulfill his media obligations.
During his pay-per view interview this past weekend, Conor McGregor weighed-in on the situation, saying:
“I’m the two-weight world champion at that stage. I’m (expletive) richer than rich. I don’t give a bollocks. … She didn’t have to do the media and that’s great. If they would have done that to me I would have showed up at UFC 200, but we split the card. UFC 200 did great numbers, UFC 202 did great numbers. It also gave me that extra bit of time that looking back, I probably needed. I probably needed that extra time. So everything worked out perfect for me. I’m sitting there and I heard she requested no media and got no media and I was happy for her because that’s what she asked for. Then I also didn’t give a (expletive).”
Following the fight, Rousey has stayed out of the public eye as much as possible. While an initial statement from the former champ following the loss stated that she would take some time to process the situation before making any decisions on her future in the sport, UFC President Dana White revealed this week that Rousey is likely done fighting.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/31/2017.