The last time Conor McGregor fought was in 2021 in a matchup between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor, in which the Irish fighter broke his ankle in a devastating injury. As a result, UFC commentator and fighting expert Joe Rogan explained his belief that McGregor would never compete again. According to Rogan, McGregor was enjoying his party life outside the ring too much to return to the Octagon.
“I don’t know if Conor is ever gonna fight again,” Rogan said during a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” McGregor had been scheduled to fight in June against Michael Chandler, but broke his toe in training. “The reality is that guy’s partying, and he’s partying real hard, and he talked about it in the court case; he’s talking about cocaine,” Rogan said. McGregor was ordered by an Irish court to pay over $200,000 in a civil rape case. He has denied raping the woman.
Rogan also highlighted the extreme measures McGregor takes to train for fights, suggesting it may have led to his drug habits. “We’ve all seen Conor get beat up and knocked out. We’ve seen Conor’s sparring footage. He spars pro boxers. He’s sparring elite fighters,” he said. “You’re getting hit in the head a lot, and a lot of fighters, especially towards the end of their career, turn to drugs.”
“I think there’s probably like a constant state of discomfort that they live in where their dopamine levels are offed up. Their cortisol levels are offed up; their bodies just you’re not supposed to get punched in the head 1000 times a year,” Rogan stated. “It’s just not supposed to happen, and that’s the reality of consistent training.”
Questioning Poirier in the ring after the 2021 fight against McGregor, Rogan asked the fighter, “Obviously, you got him down. You landed some vicious ground and pound, and in the last seconds of the fight, in a crazy freak accident, he misses a punch and breaks his own ankle.” Poirier responded, “He fractured it on one of the checks at the beginning of the fight, then it broke on a punch. When I pointed at him at the beginning of the fight, that’s when I checked the good kick. I bet that’s when it cracked.”
Rogan followed up, “You felt it?” The fighter confirmed, “I felt something.” Poirier continued, “It was probably cracked and then just on the twist of the punch finish. You know.” He additionally criticized the personal attacks McGregor supposedly waged against Poirier in the weeks leading up to the highly anticipated fight.
“Yeah, I can take, you know, like even the trash, like there’s no holds barred with the trash talk, right? But murder is something you don’t climb around. You know, there’s no coming back from that. And this guy was saying he was gonna murder me and all kind of stuff. He was telling me he’s gonna kill me tomorrow. I’m gonna leave here in a cough. And you don’t talk like that to people, man, I hope this guy gets home safe to his beautiful family. You know,” he told Rogan.
Watch Rogan slam “The View” below:
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