Video: UFC fighters react to Conor McGregor's comments on his promotional duties

LAS VEGAS – Conor McGregor has dominated the MMA news cycle the past 48 hours after a surprise announcement he was walking away.

We learned today that’s not quite the case after his first official statement following a tweet that exploded around the sports world. The real issue, McGregor said, is that his days of doing the heavy promotional lifting for his fights need to be over so he can worry about preparing and not talking to cameras.

But that didn’t change McGregor (19-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) being pulled from his UFC 200 rematch with Nate Diaz (19-10 MMA, 14-8 UFC). Because he didn’t want to show up to Las Vegas this week for a news conference and some commercial shoots, the company pulled him from the card.

Ahead of Saturday’s UFC 197 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, we spoke to fighters from the card to find out just where the line is between doing the kind of promotional work McGregor did leading up to his UFC 196 loss to Diaz, and what he says he requires now – which is next to nothing so he can train.

Check out the video above to hear get responses from the likes of Robert Whittaker, Rafael Natal, Edson Barboza, Andre Fili, Sergio Pettis, Chris Kelades, Walt Harris, Cody East and Yair Rodriguez.

And for more on UFC 197, check out the UFC Events section of the site.