Conor McGregor has released a bombshell statement alleging that the UFC 264 main event was nearly canceled due to a leg injury that the UFC knew about.
There has been much debate and speculation about when exactly Conor McGregor broke his tibia in the UFC 264 main event. One recent video that emerged soon after the event may have successfully solved that question at face value, but the discussions and speculations have waged on, with McGregor himself being continuously asked about when precisely the injury occurred during the fight.
While the break may or may not have happened at the point captured in the aforementioned video, there were already issues with the leg that preceded the trilogy. McGregor claims that there were stress fractures present in his leg that nearly forced him to pull out for the first time in his illustrious career.
Furthermore, the Irishman would drop a massive bombshell that could potentially result in a scandal for the UFC, especially with a name attached to the story as globally recognized as McGregor’s. Conor McGregor claims that not only was he already injured heading into UFC 264, but that Dana White and the medical staff of the UFC knew about it.
“I was injured going into the fight,” McGregor said in a video statement released Thursday. “People are asking me, ‘When was the leg broke?’ At what point did the leg break? Ask Dana White. Ask the UFC. Ask Dr. Davidson, the head doctor of the UFC. They knew…I had stress fractures in my leg going into that cage. There was debate about pulling the thing out because I was sparring with no shin pads and I kicked a knee a few times. So I had multiple stress fractures in the shin bone above the ankle.
“And then, I have trouble with the ankle anyway throughout the years of fighting all the time. And I also was wrapping me ankle. I was wrapping me ankle every training session. I even done a lot of training sessions when the ankle was sore. I still wouldn’t stop training. I used to just train on me back. And that’s how I developed those ground-and-pound shots from the back. That’s why Dustin backed away when he was on top of me and I was landing the upkicks, and the elbows, and all.
“It’s a horrible place to be in when you’re against someone like me. It takes so much effort to try and land shots from your top position. And while you’re trying to do that and you’re 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 me training.”
Conor McGregor has already undergone successful surgery on his injured leg and has every intention of recovering and rebuilding. McGregor closed his statement by implying that there is a silver lining in this dark cloud, which is that he will receive the treatment he already needed, even if the circumstances are far from ideal.
“So now, I’m essentially out to getting exactly what I needed to get there,” McGregor continued. “I needed to get treatment on my leg. I needed to get treatment on the ankle, and I needed to get treatment on the shin bone. And I would’ve never committed to going under the knife unless something like this has happened…
“What I needed was a titanium shin bone. So now, I’ve got a titanium rod going down the knee, from the knee to me ankle, and the doctor said it’s unbreakable.”
What are your immediate thoughts after reading this bombshell statement from Conor McGregor?
