He cited a lack of exciting options as the reason behind his decision to quit.

“Hey guys I’ve decided to retire from fighting. Thank you all for the amazing memories! What a ride it’s been!” the 31-year-old Irishman said, adding a picture of him and his mother and promising to buy her a dream home.

“The game just does not excite me, and that’s that,” McGregor told ESPN on Sunday.

“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.”

McGregor, who knocked out Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds on his return to the octagon back in January, had hoped to fight twice more in 2020.

But the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of interesting opponents seems to have put paid to that.

McGregor had been linked by the media to a number of fights, including a match-up against Brazilian great Anderson Silva.

But the Irishman hinted that the UFC was not prepared to meet his price for such a bout.

“When the Anderson one came along, I was like, `yeah, that’s a mad fight’. And then everyone said he’s old and over the hill,” McGregor explained.

“I was like, `what?’ Fighting a former light heavyweight and the middleweight GOAT (greatest of all time), and the actual GOAT in my eyes – that’s not a rewardable fight?”

UFC president Dana White appeared to take McGregor’s retirement seriously.

He has faced demands from other fighters, including light-heavyweight icon Jon Jones and welterweight crowd-pleaser Jorge Masvidal, to be paid more money for their fights.

“Nobody is pressuring anybody to fight. And if Conor McGregor feels he wants to retire, my feelings about retirement are clear —- you should absolutely do it,” he told a media conference following Saturday’s UFC 250 event in Las Vegas.

The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion first quit the sport in April 2016, and in March 2019 he again announced he was hanging up his gloves.

But on both occasions the retirements were short-lived.

Once again, McGregor is leaving the door open for a return in the future.

“We’ll see what the future holds. But for right now, for the immediate future, 2020, all the best to it.”

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Philip will attend a parade of Royal Marines at Buckingham Palace after more than 22,000 solo appearances over the last 65 years.

He is the Captain General of the Royal Marines.

Philip married Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey in 1947, and the couple are due to celebrate their platinum, or 70th, wedding anniversary in November.

Buckingham Palace has said that Philip, who is also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, may choose to accompany Elizabeth at certain events in the future.

Elizabeth has described Philip as her “strength and stay” during her reign, despite his reputation for stray comments and headline grabbing gaffes.

The queen, the world’s longest-reigning living monarch who celebrated her 91st birthday in April, will continue to carry out a full programme of official engagements.

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