Conor McGregor’s money-spinning fight with Floyd Mayweather was stopped in the 10th round because of ‘mild traumatic brain injury’ to McGregor, according to a ringside physician. .
The McGregor claimed he was merely fatigued after going toe-to-toe with the unbeaten American and suggested referee Robert Boyd should have let the fight continue to the bell in the 10th round. .
But Darragh O’Carroll, MD, praised the man in the middle for calling a halt to the fight when he did. Writing on TONIC, O’Carroll said:
“Byrd’s calculation to call a stoppage was likely not based on signs of fatigue, but rather signs of traumatic brain injury.
Ataxia, or dizziness and loss of balance, is one of the hallmarks of concussion, a type of mild traumatic brain injury. Fatigue may cause sluggish and slow movements, but does not cause the imbalance and poor coordination exhibited by McGregor in the 10th round.
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.
Continuing the fight would have put McGregor at risk for continued head trauma, risking a future of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or at worst, repetitive damage leading to a severe traumatic brain injury such as a brain bleed.
It wouldn’t be the first time a boxer experienced this, as was tragically the case just this year to young Daniel Franco, who required emergency neurosurgery to save his life.”