A doctor has revealed why Saturday’s super fight between MMA fighter Conor McGregor and boxer Floyd Mayweather was stopped in the 10th round.
Referee Robert Byrd stopped the mega-fight – taking place at the T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas – meaning Mayweather won by TKO.
McGregor wasn’t too happy with the decision, putting his ‘wobbly movements’ down to fatigue, something he says he’s experienced in previous fights.
During the post-fight press conference, McGregor said:
I would have liked to see the end of the 10th… I have this patch where I must overcome, I get a little wobbly, but it’s more fatigue. If you look at the Diaz 2 fight, I came through that.
However, according to Tonic, Byrd’s decision was likely based on signs of traumatic brain injury, rather than fatigue.
Ataxia – dizziness and loss of balance – is just one sign of concussion.
Whereas fatigue may cause slow movements, it doesn’t contribute to the imbalance and poor coordination exhibited by McGregor, according to Darragh O’Carroll, a former ringside doctor and emergency physician.
He says being wobbly, in the setting of pugilistic trauma, will ‘always be treated as the result of head trauma and not as fatigue’ adding, to let a fighter continue on would be ‘grossly negligent’.
McGregor maintained there is a patch in his fights where he says he goes through this ‘fatigue stage’, adding he ‘wasn’t rocked’.
Dr O’Carroll said:
As an Irishman and self-admitted McGregor fan, I would like to believe him, but as a physician and former ringside doctor, I believe the fight was stopped for his own safety.
Byrd did an excellent job by stopping the fight when he did, as I’m certain the ringside physician and all members of the Association of Ringside Physicians would agree.
Sounds like the right decision was made.
