Conor McGregor was guaranteed $10 million at UFC 200 according to referee John McCarthy

That’s a lot of solid gold pocket watches.

Did you guys hear? Conor McGregor isn’t on the UFC 200 fight card anymore, there may have been something small about it in the media about it last week…

All joking aside, The Notorious will be missing out on a significant pay day following his to and fro with the UFC big wigs which resulted in the Dubliner being pulled from the landmark UFC 200 event in July.

I have decided to retire young.
Thanks for the cheese.
Catch ya's later.

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 19, 2016

McGregor was guaranteed to pocket a cool $10 million for his exploits on the night according to referee John McCarthy, who has the inside scoop on the figures.

“I talked to Lorenzo Fertitta at UFC 197 standing in the back and we started talking,” McCarthy said during a recent episode of his podcast Let’s Get It On MMA. “And he said, ‘I never thought that when I had a guy guaranteed $10 million I would have a problem.’ If you don’t think $10 million is a lot of money to make for a fight, you are crazy. That is life changing money.”

While arguably McGregor has become an even bigger star in the fall out from the clash with the UFC, it’s clear that the UFC called his bluff. It seems they were keen to show that no one person is bigger than the UFC itself and the main event at UFC 200 was replaced with Jon Jones v Daniel Cormier II.

“That hand in poker, he lost,” said McCarthy. “That $10 million might not be $10 million the next time he fights because it’s not UFC 200.”

Many MMA fans around the world are upset that such an important event like UFC 200 will take place without the biggest star currently in the UFC, and have debunked claims that it will still be as big without McGregor on the card.

Despite his apparent unwillingness to promote the fight all over America, McGregor hyped the fight over social media to an extent not seen before in the UFC.

However, the UFC had a line in the sand they refused to cross and it seems we will have to wait until later in the year to see McGregor in the octagon again.