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Like many fighters whose calves get their calves kicked, Conor McGregor only realized the damage it was too late.
Speaking to reporters following his loss to UFC 257 headliner Dustin Poirier on Saturday, McGregor struggled to deal with the fortuitous reversal that turned a strong first-round performance into a stoppage via TKO in the second tower.
“It’s heartbreaking,” McGregor said after stepping onto the podium at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, which hosted the à la carte event. “It’s hard to bear. The highs and lows of this game. “
Part of McGregor’s reconciliation was coming to terms with just how much Poirier’s low kicks played in setting up the flurry of punches that landed him the first TKO loss of his professional MMA career.
The former two-division champion and box office star showed up to the press conference on crutches.
“My leg is completely dead, and although it felt like I was checking them, it was just sinking into the muscle in the front of the leg, and it was severely compromised,” he said. “It’s like an American football in my shoe a minute. It is what it is. Dustin fought a hell of a fight.
Poirier was punched by McGregor the first time they met in 2014 in a featherweight fight. The loss was the catalyst for Poirier to move on to the lightweight division, where he went on a tear that led to the interim title.
As for how far McGregor has come, he said he would make the necessary adjustments and keep walking. There’s no doubt that part of his job will be to minimize the potential effect of low kicks. Until the second round, McGregor felt he was heading in the right direction despite giving up a withdrawal.
“I thought I did well,” he says. “I got up, I turned it over. I felt good with him in the clinch, I felt better than him in the clinch. But too little, too late. The leg was compromised and I did not adjust. Fair play with Dustin.
McGregor isn’t the first fighter to suffer debilitating effects from calf kicks. The strike affects the peroneal nerve which provides movement and sensation to the leg. Damage to the nerve can cause the foot to drop, rendering a fighter unable to lift or plant the foot. While it doesn’t appear that the ex-champ was hampered in this way, he said the situation only got worse as Poirier continued to strike.
“I was going to toughen it up,” he said. “I resisted as much as possible. It was unusual. I felt like I had lifted my leg a few times, but it just sank into the muscle in the front and it was severely compromised. And then Dustin also had a good, solid defense. So when I pushed forward with the punches, he defended himself well. He fought a hell of a fight and I’m happy for him.
McGregor made no excuse for not being able to play. The setback was pretty much something to think about, and he was still in that process as reporters asked him what had happened. The best response he could come up with was that he had just been upgraded and would come back to make things right.
“It was a phenomenal performance from Dustin,” he said. “I do not know what to say. I’m going to go back there, relax, watch the full fight and understand it better. But the leg was compromised and I rushed the blows a bit. And I didn’t adjust. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. I don’t even know if I am so upset. I do not know what to say.
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