Conor McGregor says the reason for him retiring from the Octagon is because "the game just does not excite" him anymore.
The Notorious shocked MMA fans early this morning by announcing his retirement for the third time in four years.
McGregor appears to be frustrated that he has not been offered a fight with Justin Gaethje, who is scheduled to face Khabib Nurmagomedov in September.
He told ESPN's Ariel Helwani: "The game just does not excite me, and that's that.
"All this waiting around. There's nothing happening. I'm going through opponent options, and there's nothing really there at the minute. There's nothing that's exciting me.
"They should have just kept the ball rolling. I mean, why are they pushing [Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje] back to September? You know what's going to happen in September, something else is going to happen in September, and that's not going to happen.
"I laid out a plan and a method that was the right move, the right methods to go with. And they always want to balk at that and not make it happen or just drag it on.
"Whatever I say, they want to go against it to show some kind of power. They should have just done the fight -- me and Justin for the interim title -- and just kept the ball rolling."
He added: "I'm a bit bored of the game. I'm here watching the fight. I watched the last show -- the Woodley-Burns show -- I watched the show tonight. I'm just not excited about the game, Ariel. I don't know if it's no crowd. I don't know what it is. There's just no buzz for me."
McGregor claimed that the UFC have offered him "stupid" fights.
He said: "I had my goals, my plans, the season. I had everything laid out. Obviously the world has gone bleeding bonkers at the minute. There's f*** all happening at the minute. They want to throw me up and down weights and offer me stupid fights. I don't really give a f***. I'm over it."
In response to McGregor's announcement, UFC President Dana White said: "(McGregor) has sold an obscene amount of liquor, I don't know what his financial situation is with that thing.
"Conor McGregor's not going to need any money any time soon".
In response to questions on McGregor's future, White also explained how he understands the gravity of the situation fighters find themselves in during the coronavirus pandemic.
White added: "I want to remind everybody that we're in a pandemic, the world is a crazy place right now with all these things that are going on.
"I think that everybody feels this right now - there's no fans, you can't travel to fights now.
"I think everybody is p****d off, confused, been locked up in their houses for three and a half months, people are wearing masks, there's protests, riots and the list goes on and on.
"Listen, if you don't think that what I'm doing right now is probably the hardest thing that I've ever done? And if you don't think that three times a day I throw my f*****g hands up and I'm ready to say 'you know what? F**k this s**t'?
"Believe me, the amount of people I have gunning at me right now is insane.
"But here we are, we've pulled off our fifth fight, no other sports are going right now but us.
"The beautiful thing about this this sport is that you don't have to fight."
