Conor McGregor confirms shin injury but no broken foot from Nate Diaz rematch
LAS VEGAS — When Conor McGregor arrived to speak to the media following his five-round war with Nate Diaz on Saturday night, he did so on a pair of crutches.
There had been reports after the fight that McGregor actually suffered a broken foot as a result of the 25-minute battle with Diaz that resulted in the Irishman earning a majority decision victory.
McGregor addressed the injury and confirmed he did not break his foot, but said his shin was definitely banged up from all the leg kicks he delivered to Diaz over five rounds.
"My shin. I kicked his knee about 40 times and it's hurting me," McGregor said. "That's it, just my shin, everything else is good. My ankle was actually a bit banged up coming into the fight. We were practicing leg kicks in camp so it was a little bit swollen coming in but it's the shin.
"I kicked his knee clean, I think it was in the first round and then I just kept kicking so I'm feeling it now, but other than that I am perfect."
McGregor tailored his strategy specifically for Diaz and one of the main weapons he wanted to use during the fight were leg kicks.
McGregor admitted that going into the pivotal second fight at UFC 202 that he had never really used leg kicks as part of his arsenal, but he knew Diaz had been susceptible to them in the past so he implemented them into his game plan.
Don't expect McGregor to use leg kicks very much in the future — or at least until he's staring back at Diaz across the Octagon again.
"I tell you what (expletive) leg kicks," McGregor said. "My leg is in bits after them. I don't really throw leg kicks. I've thrown maybe three my whole career. Usually if I'm fighting orthodox people and people in the featherweight division about 5'8", 5'7" even, an orthodox it's a little bit more risky.
"This time you have to hit the legs on him so we practiced leg kicks and I'll tell you what, he's got pretty good at checking them. He's able to handle the leg kicks now. He's a lot more seasoned with them. But I just kept kicking. I'm sure it set up some of the shots that I landed. I didn't just head hunt — I hit the leg, I hit the body, I didn't overload on my shots. I had some clean work in there tonight."
