Conor McGregor's coach John Kavanagh has spoken out on his charge's horrific leg break during the trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, suggesting it could have been caused by a pre-existing injury.
The incident occurred at the end of the main event's first round at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with a doctor stoppage sentencing McGregor to a 3-4 record in his last seven octagon outings.
Some fans online – as well as Poirier himself – thought they had identified the Irishman's tibia fracturing around 20 seconds into the bout, but coach Kavanagh refuted that in a post-fight interview with Wimp2Warrior.
"You can watch this back, where he throws a leg kick... Conor flicked it from the knee to stab the ball of the foot into the abdomen," he explained to Laura Sanko.
"Against the same stance, there's a high danger of catching that elbow. You can watch it back, and you'll see that's clearly where the fracture happened."
Also on rt.com WATCH: Fans pinpoint moment McGregor ‘actually fractured leg’ just 20 SECONDS into UFC 264 fight as Poirier points at rival"He very aggressively threw that kick, Dustin shelled with the lead hand, and the foot wraps around the [elbow] in a similar fashion to where poor old [Anderson] Silva and [Chris] Weidman, they wrapped around the shin – [McGregor] wrapped his shin around the elbow," Kavanagh added.
"He stands back on it, and you can see the bone almost protrude through the skin. I don’t know how he didn’t fall there. But he comes in then, they exchange crosses, they both miss with their back hands, he goes to step back on it, and that’s when it’s that horrifying fold underneath."
Furthermore, Kavanagh claimed that a pre-existing injury in training could have been an influential factor in the horror scene.
"[A] little bit of that ankle injury had been aggravated during the camp," Kavanagh said.
"We’d gotten a scan on it. Did that have a small part to play in weakening it? I don’t know...We were [with] Dr. Neal ElAttrache, a pretty famous orthopedic surgeon here in LA. We were with him a couple weeks ago to get a scan on the ankle.
"They say, you think when you look at an MRI or a CAT scan, it’s perfect. But they say it’s like listening to an engine. A very skilled mechanic can maybe pick up something off it, but it’s not till you open it up that you see it.
"There might’ve been something in there. It would seem unusual that a young, healthy, fit man could wrap his foot around an elbow without there have been something there before. But you can sort of play those guessing games all day long."
Contrary to some viewers who felt McGregor's cardio was flailing and his ground game poor while close to getting knocked out, Kavanagh was impressed by what he saw from his fighter before the abrupt end.
"It was going fantastic," he claimed.
"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 [the] 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 [to] keep the rhythm going for the rest of the fight.
"Credit to Dustin, that’s the way fighting goes. He won. It’s an unfulfilling end to the night. I don’t want to put words in Conor’s mouth, but even if it goes in a way where you just get punched out, you can say ‘All right, you got me.’
"This doesn’t feel properly finished, so to speak. Closure, that’s the word I was looking for."
McGregor was blasted by fans for a classless post-match interview where he continued to insult Poirier and his wife, but Kavanagh rolled his eyes when it was brought up, and seemed to disapprove of 'Notorious' being put on the spot so soon after suffering such an injury.
"His foot is literally hanging down. It’s a clean fracture of the fibula and tibia, it went straight through, the foot’s hanging down," he explained.
"You can only imagine the rush of hormones and what’s going on in your body, the pain. It was on fire. And then someone sits down and sticks a microphone in your face. ‘How are you feeling about the end?’"
"Come on. Come on! When has he ever not been graceful at the end? Let’s get backstage, let’s get a proper assessment from a doctor. Let’s get an x-ray. So I was pretty miffed at the idea of sticking a microphone in his face at that point."
Warning: Contains strong language
Batting off suggestions that he may retire after this latest setback, Kavanagh also insisted this isn't the end for McGregor.
"He truly loves this and it’s hard to imagine him not wanting to come back, not wanting to do this again," he said.
"Because we really just got this fantastic rhythm. He’s turning 33, which to me is a peaking time where strength meets conditioning and mental and physical and spiritual maturity, everything’s coming together.
"I think we have a couple of years of this ahead of us," Kavanagh claimed.