Conor McGregor announces his MMA retirement — again

MMA fighter Conor McGregor just announced his retirement — for the second time.

McGregor, who earned himself a six-month suspension in January for his role in a post-fight brawl after UFC 229, announced early on Tuesday that he is retiring "from the sport formally known as 'Mixed Martial Art.'" He added that he wishes "all my old colleagues well going forward in competition" and now joins "my former partners on this venture, already in retirement."

But no one was sure whether to take McGregor's announcement at face value, especially because he previously said he was retiring in 2016. "I have decided to retire young," he tweeted at the time. McGregor took this back just two days later, but his retirement could be real this time, with the phrasing of his tweet suggesting he could continue his career in boxing or wrestling. It's a real boy-who-cried-wolf scenario.

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McGregor's Tuesday announcement also came just hours after his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, during which he said he's "in talks" for his next UFC fight in July and that he's "ready" for it, although "we'll see what happens" because "there's a lot of politics." The timing led fans to speculate McGregor's retirement announcement is simply a negotiating tactic.

UFC President Dana White reacted to McGregor's news Tuesday by saying that "it totally makes sense" and that "if I was him, I would retire too," per MMA Junkie. It remains to be seen how real all of this is, but if this retirement announcement is anything like the previous one, we may only need to wait two days to find out.