After Conor McGregor’s gruesome ankle injury last Saturday at UFC 264, UFC president Dana White insinuated that McGregor’s ankle wasn’t in the best shape prior to his match against Dustin Poirier, stating that he has “chronic arthritis in both ankles” during an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
“He’s had ankle issues for the last couple of years,” White told Fox News, “He had asked if he could tape his ankles coming into this fight, and then he opted not to tape them. I don’t know why.”
McGregor backed up White’s statements, saying he had “stress fractures” going into the fight. “I was injured going into the fight,” McGregor said in an Instagram video on Friday. “They knew, I had stress fractures in my leg going into that cage.”
However, Bob Bennett, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday that the NAC was unaware of any preexisting injuries for McGregor prior to the fight. According to commission guidelines, McGregor would have been required to filled out a pre-fight questionnaire confirming that he was well enough to fight and relatively injury-free.
“If we ever knowingly had information a fighter wasn’t fit to fight, we wouldn’t let them compete,” Bennett said to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It would go to a doctor and a doctor would make that decision as the expert.”
Regardless, it’s looking like McGregor won’t be returning to the octagon any time soon. Previously reported by Men’s Health, surgeons suggest McGregor will be on crutches for at least six week and it could be another 12 months before McGregor is expected to be in fighting shape.
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