Coach John Kavanagh: Pre-existing Conor McGregor injury may have led to UFC 264 leg break

Conor McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh thinks an ankle injury sustained in training camp may have contributed to the leg break that ended the UFC 264 headliner.

According to Kavanagh, the former two-division UFC champion McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) came into the fight with some pre-existing issues in the same leg that was snapped in his first-round TKO loss to Dustin Poirier (28-6 MMA, 20-5 UFC) in Saturday’s trilogy bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Kavanagh said McGregor visited a doctor in California in the weeks prior to UFC 264, and although nothing serious was discovered, he theorized there could be connection during an Instagram Q&A with Laura Sanko for Wimp 2 Warrior.

“A little bit of that ankle injury has been aggravated during camp,” Kavanagh said. “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.”

Kavanagh said he’s pinpointed the moment where the fight-ending damage to McGregor’s leg occurred. He said McGregor landed a kick to Poirier’s elbow in the final minute of the round, and that set the stage for the moment he stepped back and collapsed to the canvas after missing on a punch.

“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, he wrapped his shin around the elbow.”

McGregor suffered a broken tibia in the loss to Poirier in what was an anticipated rubber match. UFC president Dana White said the Irishman is scheduled to undergo surgery on Sunday, and Kavanagh verified as much.

“He’s in 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.”

As far as how the fight was unfolding prior to McGregor’s injury, the SBG Ireland coach said he couldn’t have been more pleased with his athlete.

Kavanagh felt McGregor was getting into his groove and was trending toward a finish, but then his fighter couldn’t continue into the second frame. It was disappointing, he said, but Kavanagh gave credit to Poirier for the win.

“It was going fantastic,” Kavanagh said. “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 (of Round 1), everything is gravy. I thought 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 keep the rhythm going for the rest of the fight.

“Credit to Dustin. He won. It’s an unfulfilling end to the night. … It doesn’t feel properly finished. (There was no) closure.”