UFC
Conor McGregor says he suffered torn ligaments in thumb four weeks before UFC 178, briefly considered pulling out
Sep 29, 2014 - 12:20:15 PM Conor McGregor says he suffered torn ligaments in thumb four weeks before UFC 178, briefly considered pulling out

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Conor McGregor picked up the biggest win of his career on Saturday at UFC 178, stopping Dustin Poirier in the first round. However, there was a moment a month out where he thought he might have to pull out of the fight.

McGregor said after Saturday's event that he suffered torn ligaments in his thumb while training just four weeks before the event, but while he briefly considered pulling out of the bout, he opted to fight through it.

"I was wrestling, and a guy shot in. I went to sprawl and his whole body came down on the thumb and literally just crushed it. I just heard a couple of pops," McGregor said (via MMAFighting.com). "Of course it was [severely swollen]. So of course I'm looking at my broken thumb like that, four weeks out from the biggest fight of my life, and thinking, maybe I will pull out. But I just said, I'll do what I can and I'll play it by ear."

McGregor said he received a soft cast from a doctor in Ireland, and didn't get it checked any further because it wasn't going to change his mind.

"I don't give a f*** about no MRI," McGregor said. "No matter what they tell me in the MRI, it's not going to make a difference in what way I choose to go about this. And once I had the little cast to protect it from taking knocks when I'm not doing anything, I'm going to fight. And that's what happened."

"We can talk about Cole Miller, my previous opponent. Seven weeks. Seven weeks before a UFC main event, a big event. He pulled out with seven weeks [to go] because of torn ligaments in his thumb, and I couldn't understand that. So it happened to me four weeks out. I knew I was going to overcome it, and that is what I've done. I have a bulletproof mind, there's not a lot that can break me. It's just a thumb."

Penick's Analysis: Playing the "I'm tougher than you because I fought through an injury" is kind of a bullshit pride tactic. Putting your well-being at risk and possibly subjecting yourself to career-ending damage on certain injuries isn't a smart move, and fighters are lucky if they get through fights by doing so without any further damage. McGregor won, and did so impressively, and that he fought through the injury to do so is certainly an impressive aspect of that. But at the same time, he easily could have damaged it further to the point his effectiveness going forward is severely hampered, and that doesn't wind up as a good thing for him, the UFC, or the fans.