Conor McGregor has been told the toe injury that cancelled his UFC comeback fight is karma.
McGregor was scheduled to return against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 this Saturday but pulled out of the fight after breaking his toe. McGregor's injury remained a mystery until he posted a picture of his injured little toe and explained how he broke it during a sparring session at the beginning of this month.
The Irishman's words came back to haunt him after he mocked Rafael dos Anjos for pulling out of their ill-fated 2016 world title fight with a foot injury. "It's a bruise, I heard ice works wonders. Ibuprofen," McGregor said after dos Anjos pulled out. The Brazilian used McGregor's own words against him eight years on by tweeting last week: "It's just a bruise, take some ibuprofen."
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UFC legend Matt Brown thinks McGregor has fallen victim to his own words after pulling out of his comeback fight. “No one with any sense is mad at you other than the fact that when Rafael dos Anjos did it with an actual broken foot, you were a f***ing d*** about it,” Brown told MMA Fighting.
“What goes around comes around. The karma is real. Now Conor’s dealing with it. If he would have just kept his mouth shut, then it would be total respect. You talk s*** about other people doing it and then you go and do it." Brown then defended McGregor for pulling out with an injury because of the Irishman's back-to-back losses against Dustin Poirier in his last two fights.
"If he was in this situation and he was coming off a four-fight win streak, I think this whole conversation would be totally different," Brown added. "He is coming into the fight 1-3 in his last four, he’s right — don’t go in there unless you’re 100 percent. Why would you take that risk?”
McGregor could fight as soon as August as he only needs a few weeks to recover from his broken toe. "I couldn’t justify to my team, or fans, that I make the walk hindered again. That walk has been seen. This next walk has got to be, and it will be, 100 per cent Conor McGregor. The fans deserve it and we are getting close," he said.