After Conor McGregor instantly went down to injury on the very first kick he threw against Max Holloway, speculation immediately spread. Even UFC 329 commentators wondered about a possible pre-fight injury, but Dana White was quick to push back on the idea.
“The day of the (pre-fight) press conference, he came running up from the back, ran right up to him, stopped abruptly and squared off with him. They were pushing foreheads,” White said on the post-fight presser. “I wouldn’t know (about a pre-fight injury),
but the doctors checked him out before the fight, and he looked damn good at the press conference, and he looked fine at the weigh ins.
“If anybody saw anything, that could’ve possibly made him look weak or injured — what did the face off do? more than 44 million views — somebody would’ve saw something. Anybody see something? No. If they did, they didn’t say it, which is impossible. Nobody would do that.”
After his press conference appearance, White made sure to go back to the media and reiterate the same point.
“The guy over here earlier asking about a pre-injury… If there was a pre-existing injury somebody would’ve noticed it,” he said. “I don’t think there was, anything is possible, but for 80 million (views) just on my accounts, that number has got to be massive and nobody noticed anything. So there you go.”
While White tried to paint pre-existing injuries as a near-impossibility due to pre-fight doctors’ checks and “millions” of viewers watching, there have been many instances in the past with fighters coming into the cage already injured.
UFC was mired in a betting scandal involving injured fighters, while another high profile incident had T.J. Dillashaw in a title bout with a badly injured shoulder that quickly gave out during the fight. McGregor himself also noted how he wanted to quickly finish his UFC contract to try and get outside opportunities, so this seems like a valid question to be asked.
There isn’t much proof of it though.
For what it’s worth, the UFC’s official social media accounts followed up by releasing warm up footage from backstage, seemingly to try and put the issue to bed. The clip shows Conor McGregor drilling the same kick that got him injured. He didn’t exactly look great, but he at least wasn’t clearly showing signs of pain and injury.
McGregor himself also denied being injured in his first statement after the loss, saying he was “throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight.”
The former two division champion has now lost four of his last five bouts, and has just one win in nearly a decade. As McGregor repeatedly noted, he now has only one fight remaining on his UFC contract.
For more UFC 329 results and highlights, click here.
