Sparring footage released by Conor McGregor which had fans excited about his imminent return is actually more than 12 months old.
The Irishman is working towards a return to the octagon, and recently shared a video of himself sparring with an unnamed fighter, whom he put down with a big left hand after faking a kick. He has claimed that the new attack, which he claimed was "Conor McGregor-created" would be used in his return, which is expected to take place next year.
McGregor is still not 100 per cent back to fitness, but has been upping the intensity in training recently and expects to make a full comeback next year. And fans appear not to have noticed that his video, which he shared today, comes from his California training camp for his rematch with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, and not a more recent session.
Coach John Kavanagh can be seen keeping time in the cage towards the end of the video, while the mat appears to be from his private gym outside of Los Angeles that he rented out during the summer of last year. Kavanagh has not overseen a full-contact McGregor spar since his fight with Poirier, thus indicating that it is old footage.
He captioned the video: "What’s up my students! Here is another brand spankin’ ' Conor McGregor Created' shot for you all. I know you’ve never seen this one before. Like the rest of them. A Fake spinning back kick into a back hand rifle. I call the shot 'the tiocfaidh ar la'. Our day will come [a famous Irish Republican phrase].
"Shout out and tag and support all the companies in that cage and that gym, they are mine. Praise be to the hours I’ve put into my craft. If you’ve seen the amount of hours I’ve put into my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so masterful at all."
Fans weren't quick to point out when the footage is from, instead opting to focus on McGregor taking a full sparring session while wearing shoes. Fighters in MMA gyms are generally not supposed to even step on to the mats in shoes, much less throw kicks during sparring sessions while wearing them, but McGregor was suffering from a leg injury going into the bout.
What do you make of the newly-released Conor McGregor sparring footage? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
“I was injured going into the fight,” McGregor said on Instagram shortly after the fight. “People are asking me when was the leg broken and at what point did the leg break. Ask Dana White, ask the UFC, ask Dr. Davidson, the head doctor of the UFC – they knew I had stress fractures in my leg going into that cage.
“There was debate about pulling the thing out because I was sparring with no shin pads and I had kicked a knee a few times so I had multiple stress fractures in the shin bone, above the ankle. And I have trouble with the ankle anyway throughout the years of f***ing fighting all the time.
"I was wrapping my ankle for every training session. I was even doing a lot of training sessions, when the ankle was sore, I still wouldn’t stop training. I used to just train on my back. That’s how I developed those ground and pound shots from the back. That’s why Dustin backed away when he was on top of me and I was landing the up-kicks and the elbows and all.
"It’s a horrible place to be in when you’re against someone like me because it takes so much effort to land shots from your top position and while you’re trying to do that and losing your energy, you’re getting lumped out of it by downward elbows and vicious up-kicks. It was a skill I developed because of my damaged leg and I had to adjust my training."
