Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier’s trilogy fight at UFC 264 was supposed to settle their rivalry but all it did was add to it.
At the end of the first round, McGregor took a step and his leg snapped leaving the fight to end by doctor stoppage. It was a disappointing result and according to McGregor’s head coach, John Kavanagh, the Irishman did have an ankle injury in camp that may have caused the leg break.
“A little bit of that ankle injury had been aggravated during camp,” Kavanagh said to Instagram Q&A on Wimp2Warrior’s page with Laura Sanko (via MMAJunkie). “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.”
According to Kavanagh, he says the leg did not snap due to a checked kick as Poirier says. Instead, it happened on the kick right before it snapped when the leg wrapped around the elbow and when he stepped on it, it clearly broke.
“He throws a leg kick, and then he threw a teep,” Kavanagh said. “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.”
The result is no doubt a disappointing one for their team, but for Kavanagh, he says McGregor is already focused on rehab.
“He’s in the hospital right now,” Kavanagh said. “I’ll be heading over there after this to check in. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. This sport is the highest highs and the lowest lows. We’ve got to take some time to assess what the next move is. Obviously, rehab and recovery is where it’s at.”
