Conor McGregor was in no doubt about what was to blame for his defeat to Floyd Mayweather last weekend.
“It’s not damage, there’s always a patch in my fights where I go through this fatigue stage but I wasn’t rocked,” McGregor said after Mayweather stopped him in the 10th round of their money fight to secure his 50-0 record and peerless legacy at the pinnacle of prizefighting.
‘The Notorious’ started strongly in his debut and took a few rounds from Mayweather, who was content to let the heavy-handed Irishman wear out his arms in the early stages.
Come the midway point of the fight, McGregor tired and slowed and the finish soon looked inevitable for the 40-year-old.
“I would have liked to see the end of the 10th. I have this patch I must overcome. I get a little wobbly but it’s more fatigue. If you look at the Diaz II fight, I came through that,” McGregor said of the finish.
However former ringside doctor and current emergency physician Darragh O’Carroll is adamant that the finish had far less to do with McGregor’s gassing and more to do with legitimate head trauma.
“Fatigue may cause sluggish and slow movements, but does not cause the imbalance and poor coordination exhibited by McGregor in the 10th round,” O’Carroll wrote in a post for Tonic. “Being wobbly, in the setting of pugilistic trauma, will always be treated as the result of head trauma and not as fatigue.
“To let a fighter continue on would be grossly negligent.”
Referee Robert Byrd was criticised by certain individuals, primarily McGregor fans, for his timing of the stoppage as some argued that the UFC lightweight champion must have had his wits about him considering the fact that he didn’t hit the deck at any point.
But O’Carroll has defended the official’s decision to step in when he did.
He said: “Ataxia, or dizziness and loss of balance, is one of the hallmarks of concussion, a type of mild traumatic brain injury.”
