Conor McGregor has finally revealed why he had to withdraw from next weekend’s UFC 303 headlining clash with Michael Chandler, with a broken toe suffered in training leaving him unable to compete.
“Man we were so f—ing super ready for this fight, it is absolutely gut wrenching to take,” McGregor wrote on Instagram. “I want that new Bugatti! How I gone justify to myself getting that now without banking these fights. We had a lapse in concentration and engaged in a training session without wearing the full protective gear and I hit the toe off the elbow and broke the toe clean. It needs a few weeks that’s it. I couldn’t justify to my team, or fans, that I make the walk hindered again. That walk has been seen.
One man who sees McGregor’s injury as an example of karma in action is former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, who was mocked by McGregor back in 2016 when he was forced to withdraw from a title clash between the two due to a broken foot.
“Dos Anjos has a bruise on his foot,” McGregor told the media after that fight was scrapped. “Did you see it? It’s a bruise! Ice. Ibuprofen. If I jumped under an X-ray, the doctor would slap me and say, ‘What are you doing kid? Get out of here, stop this.’”
All these years RDA has been only to happy to finally get a chance to retaliate.
“That’s the difference between me and you Conor. You finally got exposed,” dos Anjos told McGregor on X. “You got a pinky toe injury while I got a broken foot.”
Putting that rekindled feud aside for now, the good news is that McGregor claims his injury will only keep him out of action for a few weeks and he still appears determined to return to the Octagon when he’s healed up.
“This next walk has got to be, and it will be, 100 percent Conor McGregor. The fans deserve it and we are getting close. A slight lapse in concentration and a nuisance of an injury was picked up. That’s it. Take the lesson and move forward. I will get this back. I’ve got to.
“I’ve got two fights left on my contract. I’ve got Bugattis and more yachts on my mind. I’m coming to shine. I gotta just take my time. Cause I still got yachts and Bentleys and mansions and all the rest. Ya know yaself. But ya get me, I’ll be back. See ya’s soon. See ya at the top. Chandler or not.”
McGregor also posted a rebuttal for anyone who is feeling sorry for Michael Chandler, who has been on the sidelines for over 18 months waiting for this blockbuster fight to materialize.
“Chandler is getting [10 times] of what his contract states for other fights,” McGregor wrote on X. “Meaning he would need to fight 10 fights to make what he would make in this one. I’m the One.
“For those saying he could have fought [two] or [three] times by now, etc. He’d need 10 to break even with this [check].”
For the record, Chandler’s basic salary for his last fight was $500,000 (no win bonus), so if McGregor’s claims are true then that means his rival would take home a guaranteed $5 million for this fight.
If so that’s an astronomical amount by UFC standards given that it’s McGregor who is the big draw in this match-up.
By way of comparison, Nate Diaz earned a basic salary of just $500,000 for his first late-replacement fight with McGregor in 2016, which was then cranked up to £2 Million for their immediate rematch a few months later.
Meanwhile, in more recent times, Dustin Poirier’s basic salary was believed to be $800,000 for his trilogy fight with McGregor in 2021, though he did go on to earn millions due to having a cut of the PPV revenue.
