THERE’S UNCERTAINTY OVER Conor McGregor’s next outing after it emerged that UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos has withdrawn from their headline bout at UFC 196 on Saturday week due to a foot injury.
That’s nothing new for McGregor. In fact, in his last 12 outings — dating back to 2011 — six of his opponents have pulled out injured.
September 2011, Cage Warriors Fight Night 2
Swedish featherweight Niklas Backstrom was about to leave for the airport to head to Jordan to face McGregor when he “fell” and broke his hand. McGregor took on Norway’s Aaron Jahnsen in a lightweight bout instead. Despite fighting a much bigger opponent on short notice, McGregor picked up his first Cage Warriors win via first-round TKO. Backstrom later joined McGregor in the UFC, before being released after a pair of defeats.
December 2012, Cage Warriors 51
McGregor became the Cage Warriors featherweight champion in June 2012 and was due to make his first defence of the title in Dublin against American Jim Alers — who’s now also in the UFC. Alers withdrew from the bout due to a hand injury so McGregor went on to fight — and defeat — Slovakian star Ivan Buchinger for the promotion’s vacant lightweight title instead. To Alers’ credit, however, he had been due to fight McGregor the previous September but it was the Irishman who pulled out because of a facial injury.
August 2013, UFC Fight Night 26
Following a spectacular win over Marcus Brimage in his UFC debut, McGregor was paired with Englishman Andy Ogle next. After the injured Ogle backed out, US prospect Max Holloway stepped in and took the Dubliner to the final bell for the first time in his career. Despite sustaining an ACL injury during the fight, McGregor was still victorious in Boston.
July 2014, UFC Fight Night 46
Headlining a UFC event for the first time, McGregor was set to take on Cole Miller in Dublin. A thumb injury forced the American to pull out and Brazil’s Diego Brandao was called in as a replacement. The bout lasted just over four minutes as McGregor made a triumphant return from injury in front of a raucous hometown crowd.
July 2015, UFC 189
Jose Aldo was scheduled to defend his UFC featherweight title against McGregor in the main event at UFC 189 in Las Vegas. The champion injured his rib 18 days before the bout and a week of uncertainty about his participation followed, until the Brazilian star officially withdrew and Chad Mendes took his place. McGregor stopped Mendes via TKO late in the second round to win the interim 145lbs title, before unifying the belts five months later courtesy of a 13-second knockout of Aldo.
March 2016, UFC 196
Eleven days before McGregor was due to face Rafael dos Anjos in a bid to become the first fighter in history to hold two UFC belts at the same time, dos Anjos withdrew with a foot injury. The UFC are currently weighing up their options in terms of drafting in a replacement opponent for McGregor or pulling him from the UFC 196 card.
A version of this article was published on 1 July, 2015
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