The only way McKinnie is walking up to Briggs, grabbing him by his hair, yanking him down. Then taking his back while pounding on his head. Is if Briggs was blacked out and on the verge of passing out.
A collar tie is basically the MMA equivalent to grabbing someones hair. In order to do something like that on someone equal speed as you, you need to either eat shots or strike to open up the opportunity. Briggs is WAY faster than McKinnie. No chance he can collar tie with Briggs before him landing a shot. And one shot from Briggs without gloves is going to shatter McKinnies face.
Now lets say Briggs was wasted and this turned out like Ed said and he had a fvcked up face. Insiders would have heard about it , or at minimum there would be rumors why Briggs hasn't been sparring for the past month or so due to facial gashes. That never occurred.
Briggs has told his side of the story numerous times too and it is much more believable and actually makes sense.