Conor McGregor is confident he would have turned things around against Dustin Poirier had he not broken his leg.
McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) broke his tibia and fibula in the final seconds of Round 1 of his trilogy bout against Poirier at UFC 264 on Saturday. The fight was waved off after the conclusion of the opening frame and Poirier was declared the winner by TKO due to doctor’s stoppage.
In a back-and-forth round, McGregor came out loose with an array of spinning attacks and low kicks. But after jumping for a guillotine choke while defending a takedown, McGregor found himself absorbing a barrage of punches, which changed the momentum of the fight. As soon as Poirier let him back up, McGregor threw a kick that was blocked by Poirier’s elbow, followed by a missed punch in which he snapped his leg on the landing.
If it wasn’t for the injury, McGregor thinks Poirier (28-6 MMA, 20-5 UFC) would have been in trouble in Round 2.
“What’s up fight fans – ‘The Notorious’ here. Just out of the surgery room. Everything went to plan. Everything went perfect. I’m feeling tremendous. We’ve got six weeks on a crutch now and then we begin to build back. I want to thank all the fans all around the world for your messages of support, I hope you all enjoyed the show. I want to thank all the fans in attendance at the T-Mobile Arena – 21,800 fans in attendance. The place was absolutely electric. It was a hell of a first round. It would have been nice to get into that second round and then to see what’s what. But it is what it is. That’s the nature of the business – a clean break of the tibia, and it was not to be. Dustin, you can celebrate that illegitimate win all you want, but you done nothing in there. That second round would have shown all, and onwards and upwards we go, team. We dust ourselves off, we build ourselves back and we come back better than ever. Let’s go team.”
Onwards and upwards we go pic.twitter.com/qKgochlT3t
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 12, 2021
McGregor underwent a successful three-hour surgery on his broken leg Sunday at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. The surgery was performed by Dr. El Attrache and Dr. Milton Little, according to McGregor’s agent. An intramedullary rod was inserted in his tibia, and a small plate was inserted to repair the fibula. McGregor is expecting a six-week timeline for his recovery and is set on running things back with Poirier for a fourth time – an idea that both Dana White and Poirier seem to be on board with.
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