MMA superstar Conor McGregor claims he was already injured going into his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier – and UFC bosses knew about it.
The Irishman, a former two-weight world champion, suffered a broken leg during his heavily-hyped UFC 264 bout with Poirier last weekend, prompting referee Herb Dean to stop the contest and award the American a TKO victory.
The end came when Poirier hit McGregor, who collapsed to the mat as he tried to plant his left foot just as the first round came to a close.
McGregor was whisked away from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on a stretcher. He has since had successful surgery and vowed to “come back better than ever”.
And now in a post on his Instagram account, the 33-year-old revealed that he had “multiple stress fractures” to his shinbone above the ankle prior to the fight and had held talks about pulling out of the pay-per-view event.
Filming himself on a motorised scooter with his leg heavily strapped up, McGregor said UFC officials were aware of his injury prior to him stepping into the octagon.
“Everyone keeps asking me at what point did the leg break?” he said. “Ask [UFC president] Dana White, ask the UFC, ask Dr [Jeffrey] Davidson, the head doctor of the UFC.
“They knew … I had stress fractures on my leg going into that cage.
