Conor McGregor had ankle injury in UFC 264 fight camp before suffering horror leg break against Dustin Poirier
CONOR MCGREGOR aggravated an ankle injury during his preparations for UFC 264, his head coach John Kavanagh has revealed.
The Irishman broke his left leg seconds before the end of the first round of his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier, which was ruled a TKO loss.
And Kavanagh reckons the ankle injury – which they had an MRI on – may have played a part in the 32-year-old’s tibia shattering.
During an Instagram Live with UFC broadcaster Laura Sanko, the SBG Ireland chief said: “A little bit of that ankle injury had been aggravated during camp. We got a scan on it.
“Did that have a small part to play in weakening it? I don’t know. We were (with a doctor) a couple weeks ago to get a scan on the ankle.
“There might’ve been something in there.
“It would seem unusual that a young, healthy, fit man could wrap his foot around an elbow and (break it) without there being something (wrong) there before.
“You can play those guessing games all day long.”
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Kavanagh believes the break happened when Poirier blocked McGregor‘s rear teep with his elbow.
He said: “He throws a leg kick, and then he threw a teep. That’s clearly where the fracture happened.
“He threw an aggressive kick, Dustin shelled with the lead hand, and the foot wraps around the elbow in a similar fashion to [Anderson] Silva and [Chris] Weidman.
“They wrapped their foot around the shin, (McGregor) wrapped his shin around the elbow.”
McGregor started the fight well, landing a number of heavy kicks before jumping for a guillotine and being punished with ground and pound.
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Kavanagh was impressed by The Notorious’ display before the horrific injury and believes a second-round finish was forthcoming,
He said: “It was going fantastic. “I thought he looked really, really good in there.
“I wasn’t concerned at all. I was actually really, really happy.
“At the 4:30 mark or even the 4:45 mark, everything is gravy. I thought energy looked good, technique looked good.
“A few adjustments in between rounds, and I thought Round 2 we were well on track to getting a finish there, or keep the rhythm going for the rest of the fight.
“Credit to Dustin. He won. It’s an unfulfilling end to the night. … It doesn’t feel properly finished. [There was no] closure.”
McGregor – the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight champion – successfully underwent surgery last night.