Conor McGregor says he was injured before the Dustin Poirier fight at UFC 264, as he “had stress fractures in my leg going into that cage.”
McGregor broke his leg at the end of the first round, losing via TKO (doctor stoppage) against Poirier in the rival’s trilogy contest. Taking to his social media days following the leg break, the Irishman opened up about the injury, confirming what his coach John Kavanagh said in that he was injured heading into the contest with stress fractures in his leg.
“I was injured going into the fight. People were asking me when was the leg break – at what point did the leg break? Ask Dana White. Ask the UFC. Ask Dr. Davidson, the head doctor of the UFC. They knew,” Conor McGregor said (h/t MMAjunkie). “My leg – I had stress fractures in my leg going into that cage. There was debate about pulling the thing out because I was sparring without shin pads, and I was kicking. I kicked the knee a few times, so I had multiple stress fractures in the shin bone above the ankle, and then I had trouble with the ankle anyway throughout the years of fighting all the time. And I also was wrapping my ankle every training session. I even (did) a lot of training sessions when the ankle was sore – I still wouldn’t stop training.
“I used to just train on my back, and that’s how I developed those ground-and-pound shots from the back,” continued McGregor. “That’s why Dustin backed away when he was on top of me and I was landing the upkicks and the elbows. It’s a horrible place to be in when you’re against someone like me. You can’t land. You take so much effort to try and land shots from your top position, and while you’re trying to do that and losing your energy, you’re getting lumped out by downward elbows and vicious upkicks. It was a skill I developed because I had the damaged leg, and I had to adjust my training.”