There has been much debate over what caused Conor McGregor’s tibia to break at UFC 264 but we may have the true answer.
McGregor shared the Octagon with Dustin Poirier a third time in the UFC 264 headliner. This was supposed to settle the score between the two men. McGregor wasn’t afraid to throw kicks early. When the two engaged in the grappling, McGregor dropped down for a guillotine choke. Poirier escaped and unloaded with some ground-and-pound.
The “Notorious” one returned to his feet and appeared to have landed a kick to the body. He then landed awkwardly on his lower leg and fell to the mat. Poirier swarmed in and the horn sounded to end round one. Referee Herb Dean saw that McGregor had suffered an injury and the fight was called off.
Poirier believes McGregor’s tibia break was caused by a checked kick. McGregor says there was no check from Poirier and he simply landed awkwardly.
Xtreme Couture coach, Eric Nicksick, hopped on Twitter to share video footage of what could have caused McGregor’s injury. It appears McGregor’s shin caught the elbow of Poirier as “The Diamond” attempted to block a body kick.
McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, took to an Instagram Q&A to claim that his fighter aggravated a preexisting ankle injury during training camp.
“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.”
McGregor went under the knife for his broken tibia. The former UFC “Champ-Champ” says the surgery was a success and he’ll have to use crutches for six weeks.
