Conor McGregor cleared up the storm he set off with a cryptic tweet about deciding “to retire young,” saying Thursday in a rambling and profanity-laced Facebook post that “I AM NOT RETIRED.”

It’s a meandering read, but McGregor, who would have to interrupt his training in Iceland to promote UFC 200 in Las Vegas, balked promoting the July fight. “I am just trying to do my job and right here,” he wrote. “I am paid to fight. I am not paid to promote. I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting.”

McGregor was to have a rematch with Nate Diaz in UFC 200 and was expected to appear in a commercial as well as doing media tours.

“There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop,” McGregor said. “50 world tours, 200 press conferences, 1 million interviews, 2 million photo shoots, and at the end of it all I’m left looking down the barrel of a lens, staring defeat in the face, thinking of nothing but my incorrect fight preparation,” he wrote. “And the many distractions that led to this.”

McGregor’s post concluded:

“It is time to be selfish with my training again. It is the only way.

“I feel the $400 million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside 8 months, is enough to get me this slight leeway.

“I am still ready to go for UFC 200.

“I will offer, like I already did, to fly to New York for the big press conference that was scheduled, and then I will go back into training. With no distractions.

“If this is not enough or they feel I have not deserved to sit this promotion run out this one time, well then I don’t know what to say.

“For the record also –

“For USADA and for the UFC and my contract stipulations –

“I AM NOT RETIRED.”

The question now lying at the root of McGregor’s I’m-retired-but-I’m-not-really week is whether he’ll be back on the UFC 200 card.

McGregor’s tweet had led UFC President Dana White to threaten to pull the Irishman, who defeated Jose Aldo for the featherweight championship last December, from the UFC 200 card.

“The one thing nobody is exempt from is promoting their fights,” White said on Fox Sports’ “The Herd” (via MMA Junkie). “Muhammad Ali promoted his fights. Sugar Ray Leonard promoted his fights.

“Mike Tyson, if you think about Mike and how he was when he was the champ, if you go online, you’ll see these things with Mike Tyson, he’s basically in a room for an hour – ‘Watch my fight tomorrow live on Comcast.’ Everybody promotes their fight. You have to do it.”

Earlier, White had explained to ESPN why McGregor was off the card.

“Conor did not want to come to Las Vegas and film the commercial, or be a part of any marketing we have,” he said. “He’s in Iceland training, and that’s not possible. … He felt leaving right now would hurt his training, and getting ready for this fight.”

McGregor started all this with a bombshell tweet on Tuesday that said:

“I have decided to retire young.

“Thanks for the cheese.

“Catch ya’s later.”

Last week, McGregor was watching ringside as Brazilian fighter Joao Carvalho suffered head injuries from which he later died and McGregor wrote on Facebook that it was “truly heartbreaking,” but no one thought that might be the reason for the retirement tweet. At the root, it’s always about the money.

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