Last week, Conor McGregor released a video on social media to reveal that he entered UFC 264 with a compromised leg. Specifically, “The Notorious” said he had “multiple stress fractures” in the shinbone right above his left ankle.
His claim was doubted by two sports doctors, David Abbasi and Rajpal Brar. Now, Dr. Abbasi decided to take it a little step further by analyzing the photo of an MRI scan that McGregor posted. Based on this scan alone, he was able to develop a theory.
To further clarify his point, Dr. Abbasi released a follow-up video to elaborate on what he couldn’t inside 280 characters.
The problem is, when you zoom in on that MRI — which I did — there’s no evidence of any stress reaction or stress fracture to the lower leg, where he in fact did have a fracture. It does look like there’s a little bit of signal at the ankle joint — which is lower than where he sustained that fracture — and some tendonitis.
Dr. Abbasi adds that a leg scan would probably be able to tell a bigger story as opposed to the ankle scan that McGregor posted. But ultimately, he wasn’t able to make a definite conclusion.
If we were concerned about that from a symptomatic standpoint, we would’ve ordered a leg MRI, not this ankle MRI. Because the leg MRI would be more suitable for that location. We always want to look specifically at the location where we’re concerned.
This MRI would have no correlation to the injuries that he sustained on that night.
Shortly after McGregor made his claims, Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett also went on record to dispute them.
If we ever knowingly had information a fighter wasn’t fit to fight, we wouldn’t let them compete. It would go to a doctor and a doctor would make that decision as the expert.
McGregor likely sits out the rest of 2021. Dana White expects him to be back in a year.