Conor McGregor turned 33 yesterday and marked the occasion by being released from hospital in Los Angeles, where he’s been recovering after suffering a broken leg in the first round of his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 on Saturday night.
“I think they just released him right now from the hospital about 10, 15 minutes ago,” White told TMZSports. “He’ll be in L.A. for a little while, and I don’t know if he’s going to fly home or what he’s going to do from there.”
McGregor has previously said that he’ll be on crutches for the next six weeks before he can “begin to build back,” but White doesn’t expect to see him in the Octagon any time soon.
“He’ll be back in a year – yeah,” white estimated.
Meanwhile, McGregor continues to be reprimanded by high-profile figures in the MMA business who were disgusted by his post-fight rant aimed at Poirier and his wife, with the latest being respected MMA coach Firas Zahabi.
“I was really grossed out,” Zahabi said on his YouTube channel as he recalled his reaction to McGregor’s outburst. “I don’t know how you guys can be fans of this man. I respect him as a fighter. I respect his skills — I can’t deny that — but the way he behaved was just horrible.”
“If McGregor has one true friend in this world… maybe he’s just surrounded by people who just want his prestige and money, and want what they can get from him. But if he has a single true friend in this world, that true friend is going to take him behind closed doors and say ‘The way you’re behaving, it’s stupid. You’re making yourself look bad. You’re embarrassing us, your family, your friends. It’s just a humiliating way for a warrior and martial artist to behave.’”
“He’s going after kids now!” Zahabi continued. “Now if that was anybody else, if that was a guy on the prelim card, we would all be ‘kick this guy off the roster!’” he said. “No no no, but because it’s Conor McGregor, you can’t say that! He’s Conor McGregor, he’s the poster boy. He’s the one who sells all the tickets! No, there’s no pass on that.
“Intolerable behavior. In the Khabib fight, he was talking about family members, religion. Things that you don’t touch.
“Whatever beef you have there, you can’t take it and start threatening to kill each other, and then start threatening to kill each other’s children, team members and what not. That’s just animal behavior. Then to say what he said about Poirier’s wife. It’s disgusting.”
Zahabi wasn’t finished there as he also went on to suggest that, moving aside his verbal antics, McGregor just isn’t the same fighter he was in his prime.
“He’s the only guy, that even if he loses, he can’t take it. He can’t look in the mirror and say ‘you know what, that wasn’t my fight, it didn’t go my way. I lost. Here’s what I have to do to improve. This is how I better myself.’ No no no, in his mind ‘it was a freak accident. There was no check. You’re going to get a beating in the second round.’ It’s just nonsense! Pure nonsense.
“Not only has his skills as a fighter dipped, but also his character.”
And after now having watched McGregor and Poirier fight three times over the course of his career, Zahabi has been left in no doubt about who he believes the better fighter is.
“McGregor was so down. He was so jealous of Poirier, he would say anything to try and insult Poirier, try to take away this moment from Poirier. Listen, Poirier has beaten you. He’s a better fighter than you. He will be remembered as a better fighter than you. Lose with some class!
“I think McGregor suffers from narcissism — heavily, heavily narcissistic. Unfortunately for him, he can’t see that he’s at fault,” Zahabi opined. “That’s why he needs a true friend or family member to step in, sober him up a little.”
