As far as Conor McGregor’s pre-fight injury excuses are concerned, they’re invalid to Anthony Smith.
McGregor suffered a TKO defeat to Dustin Poirier due to a doctor stoppage in their UFC 264 trilogy match earlier this month after breaking his tibia towards the end of the first round.
The Irishman has since claimed that he had stress fractures in his left leg going into the fight and that many figures — including UFC president Dana White — were well aware of his injuries.
Smith: Every Fighter Is Hurt Going Into A Fight
Of course, that is a potential explanation for why his tibia broke, but also an excuse for his defeat as McGregor was getting lit up by Poirier on the feet and on the ground well before the break occurred.
And to Smith, it doesn’t hold much weight as fighters are always banged up going into fights.
“Everyone who loses has an excuse,” Smith said on Fight Nation. “It’s new for Conor to be like that. … You knew that my hand was broken going into the Glover [Teixeira] fight and I never said anything about it because it’s not an excuse. Glover probably had a broken hand. You know what I mean?
“We all are injured. Going into the Jimmy Crute fight — I can talk about it because I won — but my leg was f*cked. I couldn’t kick the entire training camp. … The point of that is we’re all banged up going in. The fight is the easiest part. Making it through a training camp as uninjured as possible is the tough part.”
In the end, Smith believes McGregor is not trying to convince his fellow fighters of his pre-fight injuries, but rather the general public and his fans.
“I would say Conor wasn’t any more hurt than Dustin was going into that fight,” Smith added. “I’m not saying Conor wasn’t banged up or whatever, but he wasn’t any more injured than Dustin Poirier was. … There’s not one person that can ever say they go in 100% healthy. So his excuses are very invalid to me. To the general public? It makes sense that people would be buying that excuse.
“But Conor knows that all of us don’t buy it because we’re all hurt too. But he’s not lobbying to us — it’s to the general public, the pay-per-view buyers, those are the people he needs to convince but he knows he’s never going to convince us.”
You can listen to the full snippet below:
🎙️"His excuses are very invalid to me." — Anthony Smith (@lionheartasmith) explains to @RJcliffordMMA why the notion of Conor McGregor's leg being injured prefight against Dustin Poirier isn't a legitimate reason for McGregor's loss 🔊#UFC264
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— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) July 20, 2021
