Conor McGregor returned to training for the first time this week since breaking his leg in a doctor’s stoppage loss to Dustin Poirer at UFC 264.
The Irishman hit the pads promising “the greatest comeback in sports history” while refusing to accept his loss to Poirier, saying he was only beaten because of his injury and was leading when that happened.
Poirier was in control throughout the first round after some early pressure from McGregor, blocking kicks and landing several strikes.
All three judges scored the first round to the Louisiana native despite McGregor’s protestations.
In a flurry of posts on social media, McGregor went back and forth with fans about the fight and proclaimed he was up eight leg kicks to one when the fight was called and that his leg cracked from his own kick, although several commentators declared the break came from a check from Poirier.
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Even Poirier claimed that his opponent’s leg was broken prior to him falling to the ground.
“I felt something, for sure,” he said. “He fractured it on one of the kicks at the beginning of the fight, and then he broke it.”
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While the judges and fans ruled Poirier to to be the winner, McGregor said: “No loss was had here. That was my fight to win before the injury.”
“There was nowhere he could go if that goes in that second round,” he tweeted to another fan posting a video of an angle of the fight that appears to show McGregor breaking his leg before he was felled by a Poirier shot.
McGregor also revealed that in two months, he will be cleared to return to full training, including kicking and grappling.
There’s still no timeline on his return to the Octagon but UFC boss Dana White suggested that another rematch between the two men could still happen.
“It sucks, it’s brutal, it’s not the way you want to see fights end. Dustin Poirier will fight for the title and when Conor is healed and ready to go, you do the rematch, I guess,” White said.
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