Conor McGregor has ‘chronic arthritis in ankles’, requested to use tape before ugly UFC 264 loss to Poirier – UFC boss White

UFC president Dana White says Conor McGregor asked the Nevada State Athletic Commission if he could tape his ankles heading into his recent main event fight at UFC 264 against bitter rival Dustin Poirier.

The trilogy bout was lost by the Irishman via a doctor stoppage when he fractured his tibia and fibula at the end of the first round.

McGregor has since claimed that he went into the fight with "multiple stress fractures" in the shinbone above his left ankle, but this has been debunked by a pair of top sports doctors.

David Abbasi and Rajpal Brar noted McGregor "sure was kicking a lot", with Abbasi providing more details simply by analyzing the MRI scan a protesting McGregor posted online.

Giving a brief summary on Twitter, he also uploaded a video where he could explain more elaborately than a 280 character tweet allows.

"The problem is, when you zoom in on that MRI — which I did — there’s no evidence of any stress reaction or stress fracture to the lower leg, where he in fact did have a fracture," Dr. Abbasi said.

"It does look like there’s a little bit of signal at the ankle joint — which is lower than where he sustained that fracture — and some tendonitis.

"If we were concerned about that from a symptomatic standpoint, we would’ve ordered a leg MRI, not this ankle MRI. Because the leg MRI would be more suitable for that location. We always want to look specifically at the location where we’re concerned.

"This MRI would have no correlation to the injuries that he sustained on that night," he adds.

McGregor has separately claimed that both the UFC and NSAC knew he was injured before going into the Vegas spectacle. 

"I was injured going into the fight," 'The Notorious' said more specifically. 

"People were asking me when was the leg break – at what point did the leg break? Ask Dana White. Ask the UFC. Ask Dr. Davidson, the head doctor of the UFC.

"They knew. My leg – I had stress fractures in my leg going into that cage."

Though he did not mention Mystic Mac directly, commission executive director Bob Bennett stressed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal he had no knowledge of any pre-existing knock.

"If we ever knowingly had information a fighter wasn’t fit to fight, we wouldn’t let them compete," he insisted.

"It would go to a doctor, and a doctor would make that decision as the expert."

Now UFC supremo White has also added his bit to the furor, by telling Fox News how McGregor had asked whether he could tape his ankles for the clash and also claiming he had "chronic arthritis" in his ankles. 

"He has had ankle issues for (the) last couple of years,” White said.

“He had asked if he could tape his ankles coming into this fight and he got clearance to do it from the Nevada State Athletic Commission and then he opted not to tape them. I don’t know why. He has chronic arthritis in his ankles.”

McGregor has been handed a medical suspension after successfully completing surgery, meaning the 33-year-old will be out of the octagon until at least 2022.

Poirier, meanwhile, is expected to face Brazilian UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira in a title fight later this year. 

UFC boss White has already said he would look to book a fourth fight between Poirier and McGregor, assuming the Irishman makes a full recovery from his injury.