Conor McGregor’s extremely anticipated return to the Octagon resulted in sheer catastrophe at UFC 329, lasting simply 69 seconds after the Irishman suffered a knee damage towards Max Holloway.
Making his first promotional look since breaking his leg towards Dustin Poirier in 2021, the 37-year-old’s comeback was lower cruelly brief. McGregor got here out of the gate aggressive, throwing a few excessive kicks, however missed on each events and ended up on the canvas.
Whereas the previous two-weight champion managed to scramble again to his toes, he seemed utterly unsteady. As McGregor stumbled, referee Mike Beltran had seen sufficient and instantly waved off the competition, awarding Holloway the technical knockout victory.
Holloway reacts to the anti-climactic end
The victory sees Holloway avenge his 2013 loss to McGregor, taking his unimaginable skilled document to twenty-eight wins in 37 fights. Nevertheless, making his welterweight debut on the T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas, the previous featherweight king was visibly annoyed by the sudden nature of the stoppage.
“You guys are fortunate as a result of there may be going to be a Holloway v McGregor 3 now,” Holloway stated in his post-fight interview.
“It’s what it’s. I’ll sit down with the UFC. There was a lot hype for that. Now we have to run it again another time. We’d like another.
“I used to be wanting ahead to this. I used to be working onerous to get to 170lb and combat this man. For it to finish like this, it sucks.”
The anatomy of the damage and McGregor’s mounting defeats
The overall feeling forward of the bout was that if McGregor was to win, he would want to land an early knockout blow – a method the Irishman clearly embraced. Nevertheless, chaos struck virtually instantly. McGregor’s knee appeared to provide method when he missed together with his first tried roundhouse kick within the opening seconds. Holloway prevented a second tried kick and rapidly registered that his opponent had sustained a severe damage.
The consequence marks the seventh defeat of McGregor’s profession and his fourth loss in his previous 5 fights. He has secured only a single victory contained in the cage since 2016.
Return marred by heavy controversy
Forward of UFC 329, critics closely questioned whether or not McGregor nonetheless deserved the worldwide highlight following a sequence of great out-of-competition controversies, authorized battles, and missed drug checks.
In November 2024, Nikita Hand, who accused McGregor of raping her, received her civil case declare towards him for damages for assault by rape.
Moreover, McGregor had solely just lately develop into eligible to compete after accepting an 18-month ban for violating the UFC’s anti-doping coverage, having missed three drug checks inside a 12-month interval in 2024. That ban, backdated to his third missed check in September 2024, solely concluded in March.
Regardless of the widespread controversy, UFC chiefs banking on McGregor’s unparalleled star energy clearly believed he would nonetheless draw eyes to the game and generate huge income for the promotion with out damaging the model.
As an alternative, his long-awaited return leaves the game with much more questions than solutions.
