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“I broke my foot three weeks out from that fight. My foot was a balloon.”
There’s a reason Conor McGregor plodded forward and used little to no footwork in his lightweight title bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.
Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview, ‘The Notorious’ said he entered the contest with a broken foot and was unable to train seriously in the final weeks leading up to the bout.
“You must understand my foot was a balloon when I walked into that fight. I’ve got all this footage backed up from that entire camp. I broke my foot three weeks out from that fight. My foot was a balloon,” McGregor said, per MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin.
“I dove in on one foot. My foot was a balloon,” he continued. “My toes came out of the socket and a guy had to come into the cage and break them back into place, the thing ballooned out and I hobbled in there and walked him down and did not give two shits. That was with a bad camp. That was with a half-committed camp.”
McGregor lost the fight via fourth-round submission and got into a post-fight brawl with Khabib at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena. The Irishman is open fight any top contender upon his return but is most interested in a championship rematch with Nurmagomedov.
McGregor, who was reportedly in talks to fight lightweight standout Justin Gaethje back in July, is hoping to return to the Octagon by the end of 2019.