McGregor's unsurprising broken leg
I received a lot of email over the week proclaiming me Travstradamus, due to the following statement in last week's email regarding low-kicks:
"Previously, we all attempted to tee off on the lower thigh, and desperately hope that the guy didn't shield it with his shin... resulting in our immeasurable agony and/or horrific injury."
Prophetic? I think not.
In truth, I had no idea that McGregor was going to end up flinging his dangling lower leg around the ring, like some flaccid cudgel.
That said, I am fully aware that McGregor has absolutely no business throwing hard leg kicks.
This is something that I've known for a long time...
Exhibit A:
Some of you may remember after the McGregor vs Nate Diaz 2 fight, that Conor made his way to the post fight press conference on crutches.
This image could also serve as the MMA world's crying Michael Jordan meme:
After crutching himself to a table filled with microphones, here's what he had to say in the post fight press conference, when asked about the crutches.
"My shin... I kicked his knee about 40 times and it's fookin'... it's haunt me (harmed me?). It's just my shin, everything else is good."
FORTY TIMES, he said.
So I counted them.
Leg Kicks Landed: 35
Leg Kicks actually blocked by a shin or knee: 11
McGregor landed a total of 35 leg kicks, and had only ELEVEN of them blocked by either shin or knee... and that's between both legs.
I probably should have counted right vs left kicks, but who cares. Do you think that Buakaw, or Rodtang, or Lerdsila or anyone in the entire M1 striking organization would give a crap about eleven measly kicks being blocked?!
What about the guy who kicks through 2 x 4's for funzies... and bends large metal wrenches?
These fighter would happily kick your shin bone on purpose, just to let you know that they don't care.
(I'm sure they could use some ice after a fight... but they don't crutch their way to their limousines to leave the arena... because they don't have crutches, or limousines.)
The ability to throw angry low kicks is something that must be earned through years of suffering.
Conor did not do the work. He didn't earn the weapon, and yet he wielded it like Tony Stark picking up the Infiniti Gauntlet and snapping himself into non-existence.
Perhaps it's hard to get out of bed to kick 2 x 4's when you've been sleeping in silk sheets...
But perhaps that's not the case here. I don't question McGregor's drive to win, merely the methodology behind developing his weapons.
I have often speculated that Anderson Silva broke his leg for similar reasons. The dude was champion for so long that he couldn't even be bothered to put his hands in his fights. I doubt he was taking the rolling pint to his shins after practice like he probably did early in his career.
So if you want this weapon, earn it. get out there and kick the lowest part of a Muay Thai bag, where all of the filling settles down and ends up unforgivingly hard. If you can't tee off on that painlessly 100 times, then you really have no business putting power into your low kicks.
This is a lesson that has been reverberating throughout the UFC this year...
We should all learn from it.
Have a fantastic weekend!
-Trav