Conor McGregor has taken to Twitter to announce his retirement from Mixed Martial Arts. The former two-weight UFC champion hasn't fought since losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018 a by fourth round submission, but now looks unlikely to take to the Octagon again.
There can be no doubting that during his UFC career, McGregor was absolute box office entertainment. Indeed the five fights in the sport with the most pay-per-view buys are all bouts featuring the Irishman, with Khabib v McGregor boasting the highest number whilst both of his fights against Nate Diaz are also on the list.
He finishes the sport with a 21-4 record, and was one of the sports biggest stars. He won performance of the night three times in a row early on in his career after wins against Diego Brandao, Dustin Poirier and Chad Mendes, whilst also taking the interim featherweight title by knocking out Jose Aldo after just 13 seconds.
It was a controversial career to say the least, both in and out of the Octagon. He regularly got himself into trouble with the authorities whilst he was also accused of getting another women pregnant despite being in a relationship with long-term partner Dee Devlin.
But what is next for one of the most outspoken and controversial sportsmen on the planet? Paddy Power are already have a market featuring special odds for what McGregor will do next live on their website, and we have taken a look at them below.
Odds suggest Conor McGregor could fight again
Down the years we have seen plenty of fighters, whether it be in boxing or MMA, declare their retirement before coming back to fight again. One of the most high profile examples of that is when Floyd Mayweather came out of retirement twice in his career, including to fight McGregor himself in 2017.
Paddy Power's odds suggest that they are not convinced that we have seen the last of McGregor in the Octagon and that he could become the next big named fighter to come out of retirement. Indeed they are offering odds of 2/5 for the 30-year-old to fight again in the UFC before the end of 2022.
They are also predicting that UFC is not the only fighting sport that McGregor could participate in. Odds of 1/1 are available for him to appear in the ring at WrestleMania 35 as there has been plenty of speculation linking him to a move to WWE recently. This was further fuelled by the fact that wrestler Finn Balor replied to McGregor's retirement tweet, saying: "see you at 'mania brother."
Added to the WrestleMania odds, Paddys are also offering odds of 2/1 for the Irishman to win the WWE Championship before the end of 2022. Could a career in professional wrestling really be in the pipeline for 'the Notorious'?
Alternatively, the bookmakers are also offering short odds on McGregor resuming his professional boxing career. As mentioned in 2017 he fought Mayweather in his only previous bout which saw him beaten in the 10th round by TKO. It was a lucrative fight for him though, it is believed that he pocketed around £75 million in what became nicknamed 'the Money fight'. The odds are 15/8 for him to be involved in another professional boxing fight before the end of 2022, so this could be another option for him.
Conor McGregor novelty odds
As ever with Paddy Power, there are also some novelty bets available in the market as well as the serious ones. The first set of odds available are for McGregor to take up a new career in politics, with a price of 12/1 available for him to become a TD which is Ireland's equivalent of an MP.
You can also back the Irish star to try his hand at singing, with odds of 33/1 on the market for him to have a UK number one single at any point in the future.
Finally you can also bet on McGregor to become a film star in the next part of his career. Other fighters such as Mike Tyson have become involved in the film industry in the past, but if you fancy the Notorious to go onto become an actor and win an Oscar then you will get odds of 150/1 with Paddy Power.
