That five-round Las Vegas war took its toll on Conor McGregor, but reports of him breaking his foot during the fight appear to be false.
There were worrying scenes backstage following McGregor’s hard-fought majority decision victory over Nate Diaz in UFC 202. Fans feared the worst when clips of The Notorious hobbling around the T-Mobile Arena on crutches began to sweep the internet.
These fears were only intensified once reports emerged that he had broken his foot during the battle.
On ESPN's SportsCenter @TheCoachESPN confirms that Conor McGregor does indeed have a broken foot. ETA on recovery is unknown at this stage.
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) August 21, 2016
However, speaking during the post-fight presser, the featherweight champion confirmed that his foot wasn’t broken and that he had merely suffered a minor injury to his shin. The Dubliner claims a misplaced leg kick that connected with the Stockton native’s knee did the damage in the first round.
“My shin. I kicked his knee about 40 times and it’s hurting me. That’s it just my shin, everything else is good. My ankle was actually a bit banged up coming into the fight. We were practicing leg kicks in camp so it was a little bit swollen coming in but it’s the shin.
“I kicked his knee clean, I think it was in the first round and then I just kept kicking so I’m feeling it now, but other than that I am perfect.”
It was clear from the get-go that part of McGregor’s plan was to utilise leg kicks to target the heavy lead leg of Diaz, but he admitted that his opponent was way more equipped to deal with this tactic this time around. Diaz managed to check a few kicks throughout the fight which took McGregor by surprise.
“I tell you what, fuck leg kicks. My leg is in bits after them. I don’t really throw leg kicks. I’ve thrown maybe three my whole career. Usually if I’m fighting orthodox people and people in the featherweight division about 5’8″, 5’7” even, an orthodox it’s a little bit more risky.
“This time you have to hit the legs on him so we practiced leg kicks and I’ll tell you what, he’s got pretty good at checking them. He’s able to handle the leg kicks now. He’s a lot more seasoned with them. But I just kept kicking.”
MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani also reported that McGregor’s post-fight trip to the hospital went about as good as could be expected as he was cleared of all serious injuries… which includes broken feet, by the way.
Conor McGregor is leaving the hospital. No serious issues. He's cleared. On his way to his after party at the Wynn.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) August 21, 2016
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