Conor McGregor didn’t receive much sympathy from UFC fans after pulling out of his scheduled comeback fight set for next week.

The Irishman was due to face Michael Chandler in his first fight since the summer of 2021 as the headliner for UFC 303. But after being forced to cancel their launch press conference in Dublin when he suffered a broken toe, he ultimately had to cancel the whole fight.

A record gate had been recorded for the promotion and fans were outraged at the late notice of the announcement last week. But one man who knows McGregor very well has been one of the outspoken defenders of his decision.

Conor McGregor claims current injury is worse than snapped leg from UFC 264

While a broken pinky toe may seem like a relatively minor injury relative to the ones Conor McGregor has fought through previously, the Irishman insists that it has been one of his most painful. He has competed with a torn ACL and other such severe injuries, and this is his first fight pullout since joining the UFC.

His last outing against Dustin Poirier saw him suffer a gruesome fully snapped leg, which has seen him out of action for the best part of three years. But he claims that this is actually causing him more irritation, noting that he is still unable to even wear shoes due to the nature of the injury.

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“The injury is a nuisance and I’m not going to lie, it’s very, very painful,” he told SevereMMA last night at Bellator Dublin. “Probably even more painful than the leg and that’s the truth. I’ll tell you why; because the leg at least was wrapped up, I couldn’t access it.”

Asked for an ideal date for a rescheduling, McGregor said that he was hoping for ideally as soon as August or September. “I’m in recovery mode, it’s three weeks to the day, it happened three weeks ago today,” he explained.

“I’m still here rocking around in the slippers. They’re not bad slippers now, thankfully, and they’re cosy enough. But I can’t get into a shoe yet. I’ve done everything they asked.”

Joe Rogan defends Conor McGregor after pulling out of UFC 303

One big defender of McGregor’s was renowned podcaster and MMA commentator Joe Rogan, who commented on the situation during a recent episode of his JRE Fight Companion. He noted that such a serious injury can cause havoc for a fighter who relies heavily on kicks.

McGregor is one of the sport’s most renowned strikers of all time, and Rogan claimed that a broken toe could leave him much less effective with his offence. “Here’s the thing about a broken pinkie toe,” he explained to guests Brendan Schaub, Bryan Callen and Bryan Simpson.

“When you’re a guy who kicks as much as Conor, it’s a f***ing problem. It’s also the same foot where his leg was snapped, and he went into that fight injured, he’s never pulled out of a fight before, this is the first one he’s pulled out of, and I think it’s wise.

“I think if you do have a broken toe and you are going into a fight and you did go into the last fight injured. What if that f***ing toe becomes a real issue? What if he throws a kick and it smashes again and he’s in agony and he can’t move?”