Rumors circulated before UFC 178 that Conor McGregor had a problem with his hand. It was true – McGregor revealed post fight that he tore ligaments in his right thumb a month before the fight. The problem was bad enough that the Irish fighter considered dropping out of the fight. But, a doctor put a cast on the thumb, and McGregor ignored the rest.

“I was wrestling, and a guy shot in. I went to sprawl and his whole body came down on the thumb and literally just crushed it. I just heard a couple of pops,” said McGregor as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMAFighting. “Of course it was [severely swollen]. So of course I’m looking at my broken thumb like that, four weeks out from the biggest fight of my life, and thinking, maybe I will pull out. But I just said, I’ll do what I can and I’ll play it by ear.”

“I don’t give a f— about no MRI. No matter what they tell me in the MRI, it’s not going to make a difference in what way I choose to go about this. And once I had the little cast to protect it from taking knocks when I’m not doing anything, I’m going to fight. And that’s what happened.”

“We can talk about Cole Miller, my previous opponent. Seven weeks. Seven weeks before a UFC main event, a big event. He pulled out with seven weeks [before the fight] because of torn ligaments in his thumb, and I couldn’t understand that. So it happened to me four weeks out. I knew I was going to overcome it, and that is what I’ve done. I have a bulletproof mind, there’s not a lot that can break me. It’s just a thumb.”

And this is what happened.