I might be crazy. If you think so, feel free to say so. But here is what I think occurred with McGregor’s injury.
I think he hurt his knee leading up to the fight but didn’t want to pull out and lose the big payday, be out all the costs of training, and most importantly, still be locked in contract purgatory with the UFC. Yes, there is footage of Conor training that kick (gently, I should note) while warming up backstage and looking fine, but I think his knee was f’ed then and he merely put on a game face for those shots because that footage was invaluable for plausible deniability, ie “see, I practiced that very kick just before the fight and everything was great.”
Shortly after that, when he was taking his shoes off before entering the octagon, he almost fell when he weight beared on the right leg. I think that was a big tell and I bet he is mad at himself for giving the injury away then but thank goodness he had the backstage training footage to supposedly prove he was fine pre-fight.
I think opening the fight with that stupid kick was planned, because he could say “eh, I had been out 5 years, I was excited, came in too hot and threw the kick sloppy and paid a heavy price for it” when the reality is he had the injury already and needed something obvious he could attribute it to so the UFC can’t say “you screwed us, we get another fight out of you” or whatever.
That’s what I’ve been thinking since 329. Am I nuts?
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