‘You don’t need a pinky toe for a fight, chicken’: Islam Makhachev, pros react to Conor McGregor’s injury

After weeks of speculation, Conor McGregor put an end to the mystery of what exactly caused his withdrawal from UFC 303.

In a social media post on Friday, McGregor revealed that he broke his toe “clean” ahead of his now-cancelled main event matchup with Michael Chandler for the June 29 International Fight Week pay-per-view card. “The Notorious” claimed he would just need a few more weeks to heal up, and then he would be ready to go — against Chandler, or somebody else.

McGregor, the UFC’s first ever simultaneous two-division world champion, hasn’t competed since suffering a horrific leg injury in a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 264 in July 2021. The 35-year-old has lost two straight — both to Poirier — and three of four, getting stopped in all three of his losses. McGregor is now looking for his first win since stopping Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds at UFC 246 in January 2021.

Anything involving McGregor leads to responses from his fellow UFC fighters — including Islam Makhachev. See how the UFC lightweight champion, and other pros reacted below.