Conor McGregor’s last fight and how it could affect UFC 329 comeback

Everyone remembers the leg break from Conor McGregor’s last fight against Dustin Poirier, but when you look at the stat sheet from UFC 264, the numbers tell you something interesting. On the feet, Conor McGregor wasn’t being completely outclassed, and on the feet is where I expect most of his UFC 329 contest against Max Holloway to happen.

McGregor technically out-landed Dustin Poirier 43-36 in total strikes, had 71% significant-strike accuracy, and went 8 of 8 on leg kicks (via UFCStats). But as always stats don’t tell you the full story, as McGregor initiated the grappling after being rocked hard by Poirier. I don’t think that Holloway presents the same sort of problem for McGregor, because he will be going for volume and scoring points, whereas Poirier had the strength to properly rock McGregor during the 12 minutes or so they had in the cage.

Conor McGregor Last Fight Stats

Poirier landed 36 of 66 significant strikes at 54%, whereas McGregor landed 27 of 38 at 71%. It was when the fight went to the ground that McGregor really got outworked, giving Poirier 3:18 of control time. Again, McGregor had to initiate the grappling when Poirier had him rocked:

What happened to Conor McGregor’s leg?

Poirier’s account of the leg break, which he said straight to Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight, was that the leg cracked on a check early in the round, then the leg broke when the Irish star stepped back off of a punch. McGregor threw 8 leg kicks, and if Poirier was catching those on a raised knee or elbow, that’s shin-on-bone trauma that the strikes landed column never actually records.

McGregor disputed this when he was interviewed by Rogan in the Octagon, saying that there was no check, and that Poirier didn’t check anything he threw at him. His camp later claimed he’d walked in with multiple stress fractures already in that leg, indicating that this was a bone just waiting to snap. The medical read splits the difference here, with the report saying it was years of cumulative damage overloading on one awkward step.

Whatever weakened that leg, McGregor now has a titanium rod from knee to ankle. That leg is now reinforced, but it has never been properly tested against the exact exchange that may have compromised it, and Holloway loves to check kicks and fires back at volume. If McGregor decides to commit to the leg-kick game he ran on Poirier, we find out in real time whether the repair holds under the sort of fight night pressure it hasn’t seen in five years.

Jake Skudder

Jake is the Head of Audience at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator for NationalWorld. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop and The Hard Times.

Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.

He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.

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