While the hype for UFC329 came with momentous anticipation, Conor McGregor’s return to the octagon was short-lived as he suffered an early knee injury against Max Holloway in the main event at the T-Mobile Arena on Sunday morning.
With McGregor and Holloway fighting at welterweight, the Irishman opened the fight with a flying scissor kick as Holloway backtracked before regaining his position at the centre of the Octagon.
However, upon McGregor’s reset, the 37-year-old immediately felt his knee and wobbled while attempting to walk off the injury. McGregor then slipped to the canvas on two occasions while Holloway issued a flurry of strikes from a standing position.
McGregor fired with an overhand right, which appeared to be his only success in the bout, causing little damage to his opponent. With Holloway assessing the situation, the UFC veteran landed a couple of low kicks that caused McGregor to take a step back before falling to the canvas once more.
With Holloway on the attack, McGregor returned to his feet once more but was unable to continue after another limp prompted the referee to stop the fight.
Speaking after the fight, Holloway expressed that he knew McGregor wasn’t going to be much of an obstacle despite McGregor laying down the challenge while injured.
“I had him weak in the knees,” Holloway said.
“Right now I’m just praying for the guys, all jokes aside as a human being. You could see this guy is done.
“The referee was telling me ‘thank you for pushing me’ it was a hard spot and he had a hard feeling.
“Conor was crazy, he was like ‘Fight, fight!’ [while on the ground], you’re crazy bro.”
During the post-fight presser, UFC president Dana White noted that there was no indication of McGregor being injured before the main event.
“The doctors checked him out before the fight and he looked damn good
“He looked fine at the press conference and the weigh-ins
“If anybody saw anything that could have made him look weaker leading up to this fight. What did the face-off do? 44 million in 24 hours?
“More than 44 million views, somebody would’ve seen something.”
UFC 329 main card results:
Max Holloway defeated Conor McGregor by TKO (knee injury) at 1:09 of Round 1
Paddy Pimblett defeated Benoit Saint Denis by technical submission (D’arce choke) at 0:52 of Round 1
Mario Bautista defeated Cory Sandhagen by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Brandon Royval defeated Lone’er Kavanagh by submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:39 of Round 3
King Green defeated Terrance McKinney by TKO (strikes) at 4:59 of Round 1