Uproar over 'disgusting' act moments after Conor McGregor injury

UFC commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan found himself in the sights of Conor McGregor's coach, after interviewing the Irish fighter moments after he suffered a devastating injury.

McGregor went down at the end of the first round against heated rival Dustin Poirier during their bout at UFC 264 with a broken ankle, sitting up against the octagon as the fight was ended.

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Poirer won via an injury TKO, with an emotional McGregor again taking a potshot at his opponent's wife before declaring 'this is not over'.

It will be quite some time before McGregor is able to return to the ring, with x-rays confirming a fracture of the 32-year-old's tibia and fibula.

McGregor underwent successful surgery they day after the fight, however his coach, John Kavanagh, was furious at Rogan for interviewing his fighter in the ring so soon after a devastating injury.

There was heavy criticism of McGregor for again trash-talking Poirier's wife, however Kavanagh defended his fighter, saying he shouldn't have had a microphone in front of him in the first place.

“His foot is literally hanging down. It’s a clean fracture of the fibula and tibia, it went straight through, the foot’s hanging down,” Kavanagh said in an Instagram interview for Wimp2Warrior.

“You can only imagine the rush of hormones and what’s going on in your body, the pain, it was on fire. And then someone sits down and sticks a microphone in your face. ‘How are you feeling about the end?’

“Come on. Come on! When has he ever not been graceful at the end? Let’s get backstage, let’s get a proper assessment from a doctor. Let’s get an X-ray.

“So I was pretty miffed at the idea of sticking a microphone in his face at that point.”

Fans too, were uneasy at the sight of McGregor answering questions as he sat in the ring.

During the interview it was also revealed McGregor had beed battling an injury complaint on the ankle that was later injured during the fight.

Kavanagh said scans hadn't shown anything major, and considered the broken ankle to be a case of bad luck.

“We’d gotten a scan on it. Did that have a small part to play in weakening it? I don’t know,” Kavanagh said.

“There might have been something in there. It seems unusual that a young, healthy, fit man can wrap his foot around an elbow without there being something there before. But you know, you can play those guessing games all day long.”

Conor McGregor breaks ankle in Dustin Poirier loss at UFC 264

McGregor won the first fight between them at UFC 178 in 2014 by first-round finish. But Poirier won the last two and now moves on to a title fight against lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, who was seated at cageside.

With former President Trump among a boatload of notable people and celebrities in attendance, McGregor opened fast with a spinning back kick that Poirier dodged.

Interviewed by Joe Rogan sitting down in the cage, McGregor bellowed “This is not over.”

But he was taking hard shots from Poirier throughout the second half of the round.

The irony of the ending sequence is that McGregor mocked fighters who got submission victories and said he didn’t count them. That appeared to be a not-so-flattering reference to ex-champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s victory over him in 2018.

But McGregor then went for a guillotine when they fell to the ground.

Poirier was patient and escaped the guillotine and then began to land some hard shots on McGregor. He blasted McGregor with an elbow right after getting out of the guillotine and then was doing some significant ground-and-pound.

McGregor tried upkicks to keep Poirier off him and Poirier finally backed off late in the round to get the fight up. Poirier landed a straight left hand that sent McGregor back and gave him the fight.

Of course, it was surrounded by drama because it was McGregor, but it was clear that Poirier took the round and was in command of the bout.

With Yahoo Sports US/Kevin Iole

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