Things just got a little more interesting in the Conor McGregor story.
The former UFC double champion would suffer a major setback in his last outing, losing to Dustin Poirier in their third fight at UFC 264. The ending would come with a brutal beating by Poirier and then McGregor breaking his tibia in the last seconds of the round.
“McGregor Cast”
McGregor would have a successful 3-hour surgery on his ankle the following day. He is expected to be on crutches for the next 6 weeks. After the period is over, McGregor will be cast-free and “building back up.”
This isn’t the first sign of trouble “The Notorious” has seen with his ankle however.
McGregor’s head coach, John Kavanaugh says a potential ankle injury occurred in the countdown to the trilogy bout. An injury that could explain a chink in the Irishman’s armor last weekend.
Ankle Aggravation
Whether he was was 100% or not, McGregor would end up being medically cleared to fight.
“A little bit of that ankle injury had been aggravated during the camp.” Kavanaugh told Laura Sanko. “We’d gotten a scan on it. Did that have a small part to play in weakening (his ankle)? I don’t know.
“We were with (an L.A. orthopedic surgeon) a couple of weeks ago, to get a scan on the ankle. They say when you look at an MRI or cat scan, it’s perfect, but they say it’s more like listening to an engine. A very skilled mechanic can maybe pick up something, but it’s not until you open up that you see something. There might have been something in there. It seems unusual that a young, healthy, fit man can wrap his foot around an elbow without there being something there before. But you can play those sorts of guessing games all day long.”
John also explained how the injury happened.
“You can watch it back, and that’s clearly where the fracture happened,” Kavanagh said. “He very aggressively threw that kick, Dustin shelled with the lead hand, and the foot wraps around the (elbow) in a similar fashion to where poor old (Anderson) Silva and (Chris] Weidman), they wrapped around the shin, (McGregor) wrapped his shin around the elbow.
“He stands back on it, and you can see the bone almost protrude through the skin. I don’t know how he didn’t fall there. But he comes in then, they exchange crosses, they both miss with their back hands, he goes to step back on it, and that’s when it’s that horrifying fold underneath.”
Kavanaugh sees a bigger picture here. While McGregor’s ankle may have looked fine before the fight, not everything is as it seems.
Team McGregor believes the training camp had some wear which would lead to the ultimate tear that was McGregor’s tibia. No matter what might have happened before the fight, the doctor stoppage result remains the same. McGregor will get back on his horse and start the road to recovery.
John Kavanagh confirms Conor McGregor had an ankle injury in camp before #UFC264. Via @laura_sanko pic.twitter.com/Uhjprj4rr1
— Seán Sheehan (@SeanSheehanBA) July 11, 2021
