"There's no way" - Luke Rockhold doesn't feel Dustin Poirier's check was enough to break Conor McGregor's leg
Luke Rockhold doesn’t believe Dustin Poirier’s check of a kick was enough to break the leg of Conor McGregor.
Last Saturday night at UFC 264, Dustin Poirier beat Conor McGregor for the second time in six months to take himself to the doorstep of a title shot. In doing so, though, he had to face questions over the legitimacy of his win after McGregor’s leg broke at the end of the first round.
'The Diamond' was credited by some for causing the break with an elbow check from a leg kick, but during a recent interview with MMA Fighting, former UFC middleweight king Luke Rockhold disagreed - to an extent.
“There’s no way his tibia breaks just from the elbow, from that little kick I saw. Obviously it was checked hard, and it was ready to go, and it broke through. It’s kinda like why I held back on my kicks - my first kick on Yoel Romero fractured my leg. So my leg was cracked and I knew it was compromised, and I tried to work around it. I couldn’t kick more, my leg was falling apart."
“Obviously something happened before with Poirier acknowledging that and he checked him really hard, and I think it was fractured and that elbow thing just put it over the top.”
The long road back for Conor McGregor
As much as his rabid fanbase won’t want to admit it, Conor McGregor has a long way to go before he can even think about getting back to the top of the lightweight division. His best bet is to hope Dustin Poirier beats Charles Oliveira, which could open up the door for Conor McGregor to get an immediate title shot.
However, this option might seem farfetched for 'The Notorious.' McGregor should face one other name before taking a crack at arguably the best lightweight on the planet right now.
Either way, the wheels are in motion for something special to happen at 155 pounds in the next twelve months or so, and it’s hard not to be intrigued by the many possibilities at play.