We could say that thousands of fans were gutted when Conor McGregor "retired" from the UFC - but we'd be lying.

Upon hearing the news, many of McGregor's dedicatees simply shrugged their shoulders, and said: "He'll be back."

And they may have been proven right - if President of the UFC Dana White's recent comments are anything to go by.

Today, the 49-year-old cast doubt on the MMA fighter's retreat, claiming that Conor - who is reportedly under investigation for sexual assault in Ireland - is simply was trying to negotiate a better deal.

"No," White told 8 Las Vegas, when asked if he believed that McGregor had genuinely called an end to his fighting career. "I think that there’s some things that Conor wants and I think that Conor wants to get together face to face, he and I, and we probably will in the next couple of weeks and we’ll get this thing figured out."

He added: "Listen, who gets respected more than Conor McGregor does? Come on. The guy’s never been disrespected, definitely not by me. And he’s got a lot of money too. But he’s stuck on this thing where he wants a piece of the ownership and that’s just — if you look at basketball, Michael Jordan didn’t own a piece of the league, and the list goes on and on.

"Is Conor very valuable to the sport and to the brand, the UFC? Of course he is. That’s a tough one, but I think there are other ways that we can make him happy."

The American businessman's comments come after he claimed that "if he [Conor] wants to retire that’s his decision" and admitted that the fighter had requested a piece of the UFC over text message.

"He wrote ‘I feel like I should own a piece of the company.'" White revealed to TMZ Sports. "And I said ‘Conor, you know that’s never going to happen.’ But this was a couple of weeks ago. But Conor has never come out, sat down with me and said ‘I want a piece of the company and here’s why.’ We’ve never had that conversation. We did it in text two weeks ago."

He continued: "Like I’ve said, I’ve never had a bad conversation with Conor McGregor in the entire time he’s been with this company. You know I love the guy. He’s got plenty of money. If he wants to retire that’s his decision, and I always say when you start talking about retirement, it’s probably something you should do if that’s what you’re thinking."

Conor claimed on Twitter that it was all over for him on March 25, writing: "Hey guys quick announcement, I’ve decided to retire from the sport formally known as 'Mixed Martial Art' today. I wish all my old colleagues well going forward in the competition. I now join my former partners on this venture, already in retirement. Proper Pina Coladas on me fellas!"

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However, it wasn't the first time the 30-year-old former featherweight and lightweight champion had teased his retirement. Back in 2016, he claimed: "I have decided to retire young. Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya's later."

In addition, he has a lot of fights to get to this year. Speaking to Jimmy Fallon recently, he spoke about a potential fight in the summer, not to mention many people were expecting a McGregor and Nate Diaz rematch, after their previous two fights brought them to an even score.

So, is it time for us to say goodbye to Conor? Based on the evidence, we think not!

It's been over five months since the now-infamous UFC 229, in which the real fight was upstaged by a chaotic scuffle inside and outside the octagon. Conor McGregor was decisively beaten by his opponent, Khabib Nurmagomedov, despite the months of trash talk he and his team had spread.

It's part and parcel for McGregor, who utilises his insults, jibes and self-promotion as a sort of superpower - and he's got the money to back it up. The Irish fighter's coach, John Kavanagh, said as much in an interview with Joe Rogan in October, where he spoke about Conor's penchant for messing with his opponents:

"Conor's a divider. Some people love it and some people hate it. I'm not really interested in people's opinions, I'm more interested in what is, and what is is that sells fights. There's a reason he's the highest paid guy. That's natural for him to do too, it's not an act."

"It's just part of the game for him, he enjoys it, it's a bit of fun."

It's not like he's let up since his fight with Khabib, either. Within minutes of thanking the Nevada Athletic Commission for dealing with him fairly after his temporary ban from the sport, he still hyped up the fact he got the "final blow of the night" during the post-match brawl.

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He's still talking about that fight, months later - but there's even older fights that he still hasn't had the final word on.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn't a stranger to hyping himself up or mocking his opponents, so there was a lot of talk before the boxer took on McGregor for their insanely lucrative fight in 2017. But Conor still has something to say about it.

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It all started when Twitter user 'mmaballer13' posted a gif from the Mayweather fight, depicting a slow-motion look at some of McGregor's best hits of the night. "That fight was completely Conor's fight through 8.5 rounds," they wrote. "Dang. So close. Rematch anyone?"

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That's when Conor, no stranger to weighing in on his fights on social media, jumped into the fray. Retweeting the post, he added:

"I spoiled it with the rush right hook here. The angle was made. He was in the dirt. I just had to set correctly into my feet and fire. Rushing the right hook I lost balance on my back hand. Great boxing fight! A rematch will be interesting no doubt."

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Of course, the thing that piqued most UFC fans' interest was that last comment, in which McGregor made it sound like a rematch may actually be on the way.

He's said in the past that a rematch would be on his turf in the octagon, where he would undoubtedly have a great advantage, but it's unclear whether Mayweather will opt for another boxing match instead. Or, maybe he'll end up taking on Khabib again instead.

Since he had a boxing match with Floyd "Money" Mayweather and lost last year, not much has been seen of Conor McGregor. Well, I say not much, but I'm talking in a professional sense. Of course, since the fight, McGregor has struggled to keep himself out of the headlines.

There were the rumours that he had got into a bar fight with the Irish Cartel, then he apparently had an affair with Rita Ora and, then, most recently, he attacked a bus carrying a load of UFC fighters and is now facing three charges of misdemeanour assault, and one count of felony criminal mischief, and is due to appear in court on Thursday (June 14).

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So yeah, Conor McGregor has been basically been busy ruining his brand and making a bad name for himself - something which UFC President Dana White mentioned after the UFC bus incident.

"I mean, do you wanna be in business with Conor McGregor right now? Do you wanna chase this guy around for interviews and buy his flights? Do you? I don’t think anybody is gonna want him right now.

"I think everybody is gonna be pretty disgusted in Conor McGregor right now."

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White also said that if the Crumlin-born fighter wanted to settle his long-running feud with Khabib Nurmagomedov, he should look to do it inside of the Octagon.

"Listen, you don’t like Khabib and you don’t like what happened then fight Khabib. You can come in here and you can do it legally.

"Sh*t, this fight’s happening Saturday, we could’ve talked and had the Khabib fight right after. You could do whatever you wanted to Khabib within the limits of the rules of, you know, fighting.

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"But you wanna grab 30 f*cking friends and come down here and er, do what you did today? It’s disgusting and I don’t think anybody is gonna be huge Conor McGregor fans after this."

However, if McGregor is looking to make a return to the fight-game in order to settle the score with Khabib, he may need to get training. Appearing on his social accounts, McGregor posted a photo celebrating his Straight Blast Gym teammate Cian Cowley’s win at the BraveCF13 MMA event in Belfast on Saturday.

"Congrats CianCowley from the cells to the stadiums. Not a scratch. They done nothing. Jet leaves Tuesday my brother have a good one #Animal."

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Rather than congratulating the up and coming fighter on his victory, some of the UFC star's fans couldn't help but notice that McGregor was looking a little bit, shall we say... beefy?

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While McGregor may be looking a little "larger" than usual, I wouldn't go about saying it to his face and he would knock me out instantly.

Still, I guess that's what happens when you become a millionaire and the face of Burger King overnight. All those whoppers take their toll.

Conor McGregor has certainly had his brushes with controversy over the course of his career with the UFC. The Irish-born fighter has built a career on talking crazy trash in the build up to his bouts, and then backing up the hype with eye-catching finishes in the octagon, often through the phenomenal speed and power of his left hand.

But that same left hand has seemingly got the mixed martial artist into trouble outside of the octagon, after a video emerged showing McGregor appearing to strike a man in a bar.

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According to TMZ Sports, the altercation occurred after the man in question declined a shot of Proper Twelve, McGregor's whiskey brand, prompting the Irish fighter to purportedly lash out, before two others restrained him.

Dana White has since responded to the fracas, telling Jim Rome;

"So apparently this was in a pub in Ireland and it was an argument over whiskey. Conor has a whiskey now and it was an argument over the whiskey and Conor reaches out and hits him with a left hook.

"I don’t know the context of it. I don’t know the entire story but he punches a guy, an older man, in the face. ‘I knew that he had, had an altercation at a bar but I didn’t know with who or any of that, I didn’t know anything, I just knew it happened.

"When you deal with fighters, guys who fight for a living, there’s always something. If you look at some of the greatest, [Mike] Tyson, what Tyson went through at his peak. Every time you take a guy who is a professional fighter and you sprinkle a ton of money on top of it, get ready. Get ready for a disaster. Literally a disaster."

Conor McGregor leaves a jail in Miami after an earlier arrest:

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And now, Conor's most recent opponent, Khabib Nurmagomedov, has weighed in on the footage, and he's taken a pretty dim view of the Irishman's actions. As per Bleacher Report, Khabib said;

"These people, they have to go to jail. I told you, this guy have no class. No respect. 

"This is very bad for sport. Some things he doing good for sport, but right now he without his mind. He lose his mind. It's crazy. 

"Government have to smash him. This is my opinion. 'Cause I'm really, really mad about this video. I don't understand how you can punch old man."

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Conor and Khabib have something of a chequered recent past; a now infamous incident during which Conor trashed a bus that had Khabib and members of his team inside served as the backdrop to their bout at UFC 229, when a brawl broke out after the fight, as members of Khabib's team jumped into the Octagon and appeared to strike McGregor.