Conor McGregor Reveals Injury That Forced Him Out Of UFC 303 Main Event | TMZ Sports
Conor McGregor is finally telling fans about the injury that forced him to pull out of his comeback fight against Michael Chandler on June 29 at UFC 303.
And ... it's a broken toe.
And ... it's a broken toe.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Welcome to TMZ Sports, I'm Mike Babcock with my guy, as always, Mojo Mutati.
00:10Mojo, we have finally got the answer to the question that so many MMA fans have been asking
00:16for the last couple of weeks, ever since we found out that this fight that we have been
00:21waiting years for between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler, which was set to headline
00:27UFC 303.
00:29We now know the injury, Mojo, and a lot of fans and a lot of people, including Michael
00:36Chandler, are saying, what, that's it?
00:40Conor McGregor has a broken toe, a pinky toe, Mojo, there it is.
00:47Not a stock photo, that is actually Mr. McGregor's foot.
00:51He made the announcement a little bit earlier today, Mojo, and here is what Conor had to
00:56say.
00:58We had a lapse in concentration and engaged in a training session without wearing the
01:03full protective gear, and I hit the toe off the elbow and broke the toe clean.
01:10It needs a few weeks, that's it.
01:12I couldn't justify to my team or fans that I make the walk hindered again.
01:18That walk has been seen.
01:20This next walk has got to be, and it will be, 100% Conor McGregor.
01:26I'll be back.
01:27See you soon.
01:28See you at the top, Chandler or not.
01:32Now Mojo, there's a couple of things there.
01:35First of all, the see you at the top, that's Michael Chandler's catchphrase.
01:40It's what he says all the time, all of his social media posts, a lot of his interviews.
01:45See you at the top.
01:47Conor right there saying, Mojo, at least the way I interpret it, that I'm going to be at
01:51the top.
01:52I'm going to be back.
01:53It's against Michael, cool, despite not, you know, whether or not it's Michael or not,
01:59I'm still going to be part of a big fight.
02:01So I don't know that we ever see this fight, Mojo.
02:04I really don't.
02:05I don't think, I think it's very possible.
02:08We never see Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor fight, despite talking about this thing now
02:12for over a year.
02:13Yeah, Babcock.
02:14I mean, at this point, who knows if we're going to get it in the fight game timing is
02:19everything right.
02:20One guy gets hurt.
02:21You know, the next time it comes around, maybe this fight doesn't even make sense anymore
02:25after some next fight.
02:27So who knows if we're going to get it?
02:29I mean, Conor McGregor being involved in a big fight, that's obvious.
02:33Any fight that Conor McGregor is in is going to be a big fight.
02:36I mean, he's been the UFC top guy for a long time, but I'm going to say Babcock, who cares
02:44about the fight at this point?
02:46Right.
02:47I mean, I feel like this one is all about the injury itself.
02:51Right.
02:52I mean, if you're talking about a guy like Conor McGregor that talks as much trash as
02:57he does for as long as he had to go out for a toe, a singular toe, I think that is kind
03:06of ridiculous.
03:07I mean, it opens them up for just so much trash talk.
03:10I mean, imagine what Conor McGregor would say to anybody else in the same situation
03:15in the same circumstance.
03:16Right.
03:17I mean, he's one of the best trash talkers in the game.
03:20And I mean, the fact of the matter with the fight game is no one's ever a hundred percent.
03:24Right.
03:25Someone's always banged up.
03:26And honestly, I mean, I've never been a fighter, but I got to think if you're going into a
03:30fight with just a broken toe, you're probably not doing too bad.
03:36You know, I played football games within, with a dislocated shoulder and I just kept
03:41going.
03:42I mean, that's just one instance.
03:43I mean, everybody is dealing with something and always at all times.
03:46So just a singular toe.
03:49I don't know about that one.
03:50Yeah.
03:51Mojo, it's really interesting and it all makes sense.
03:54You know, a lot of people thought that this fight was in jeopardy ever since that Dublin
03:58press conference was canceled a couple of weeks ago.
04:02It all lines up.
04:03They were really hopeful, obviously read between the lines here.
04:06The UFC was really hopeful that Conor would be able to get healthy enough to where he'd
04:10be able to fight.
04:11If it was a terribly serious injury, they would have just canceled it immediately.
04:14If Conor would have broken his leg like he did against Poirier, you would have known
04:18that there's no way Conor McGregor is able to fight.
04:21But because it was a relatively minor injury, I think there was hope that Conor would be
04:26able to get in that octagon.
04:27I think it also shows Mojo that Conor knows this is a really important fight for him.
04:32Conor has lost the last couple of fights and even Conor McGregor at a certain point, if
04:37he keeps losing and losing and losing, that's going to have an effect on his popularity,
04:41on his draw as a fighter.
04:43I think he knows that.
04:44He's got to win his next fight.
04:46And I think Conor knows that.
04:48He's going to go in there healthy.
04:49I hope it happens against Michael because I think that's a great fight.
04:52I think they've got some history there.
04:54I think it's a great stylistic matchup and I'm really hopeful as a fan that we can still
04:59see Michael Chandler, Conor McGregor at some point, even though it won't be UFC 3-0.