John Kavanagh admits Conor McGregor’s injury pre-UFC 303 could have been prevented.
McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC), who hasn’t competed since breaking his leg in July 2021, was scheduled to return against Michael Chandler in June 2024, but a broken pinky toe forced him out of the bout.
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UFC 303 marked the first time McGregor has ever pulled out of a fight, but after such a long layoff, “The Notorious” wanted to make sure he’s 100 percent. Kavanagh puts the blame on himself for not being more cautious during McGregor’s sparring.
“I’ll say it more bluntly than (McGregor) will,” Kavanagh said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I should have had the protective gear on both guys from the start. The beginning of it was a little bit rushed. It’s different when you’re sparring for sparring, and sparring for whatever they were, ‘Embedded’ or ‘Countdown,’ and it was a bit sort of haphazard. ‘What are we doing?’ ‘OK, you two just move around for the cameras, but it’s also a spar.’ It just wasn’t done right. … Look, I’ll put my hand up.
“I should have had all the gear on them and they didn’t, and he awkwardly caught Tristan’s elbow and that happened very early. That happened in the first minute or so of Round 1, and he kind of whispered to me in between the rounds that he feels his toe is broke. I’m trying to stop it and he insisted on doing the next four rounds. He did all five rounds because you can kind of run on adrenaline a little bit. But yeah, it was nasty.”
McGregor makes his long-awaited comeback in a rematch against Max Holloway (27-9 MMA, 23-9 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 329 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+). A three-year long layoff turned into five, and Kavanagh feels horrible about it.
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“Sick,” Kavanagh said. “Really, really sick. It was my fault. I’m not going to beat around the bush on it: should have had the gear on them. So we’ve been super careful this training camp. Not a niggle on him, not a bump, not a bruise, 100 percent, and we’ll get to see the best version of him.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: John Kavanagh takes blame for Conor McGregor’s UFC 303 injury
