It took more than five years for Conor McGregor to return to the octagon, and just one over-ambitious roundhouse kick to bring the Irishman’s UFC comeback to a screeching halt on Saturday in Las Vegas.
‘He just tried a crazy move,’ UFC announcer, podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan said in his analysis of McGregor’s 69-second TKO defeat to welterweight Max Holloway at T-Mobile Arena.
Rogan’s postmortem wasn’t a complex breakdown of McGregor’s strategy, but rather a simple condemnation of a fighter who should have known better than to attempt such a maneuver on a pair of 37-year-old knees.
‘He tried a jumping roundhouse kick,’ the bewildered Rogan continued. ‘If you don’t land in a good way with the supporting way, you put so much pressure on that knee… he landed with his knee in the worst position.’
For his part, McGregor has made the injury sound like a freak occurrence rather than his own body’s attrition, and furiously denied claims he was injured entering the bout.
‘I had no injury / injuries going into the fight,’ he wrote on X. ‘I was throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight. This came out of nowhere. I am beyond dark here. I can only describe it as hell.’
McGregor opened his fight with Holloway by attempting a jumping roundhouse kick
Rogan’s postmortem wasn’t a complex breakdown of McGregor’s strategy, but rather a simple condemnation of a fighter who should have known better to attempt such a maneuver
Remarkably, McGregor insists he’s not done as a fighter despite his suspected ACL tear.
Even with the ‘devil staring’ him in the face, he explained after the loss, he still hopes to fight again.
‘I was so sharp and so ready for this fight I cannot believe what has happened,’ McGregor said. ‘The talk of me being off while walking in to the fight is nonsense. I was calm, ready, and confident. I am in shock [at] what has taken place. The devil is literally staring at me right in front of my face here. I am not engaging. I will be at church tomorrow.’
Asked if there may have been an existing injury, UFC President Dana White said there were no signs of it Friday at the ceremonial weigh-in.
‘Five years off in this sport is rough,’ White said. ‘We’re assuming a blown ACL. That’s what I assumed when I saw it, and that’s what the doctors think, too.’
McGregor is suspected of having torn the ACL in his right knee on Saturday in Las Vegas
McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, added on Facebook: ‘Devastated. That Opening jump switch kick was drilled daily for months, multiple times in warm up.
‘Never an issue. Knee went when he thru the very first kick. Doesn’t get any worse than this.’
Over the last five years, McGregor has been away from the UFC due to a broken leg and later a broken toe, missed drug tests and legal issues, including a pair of sexual assault allegations that he has denied.
In November of 2024 he was found guilty in a civil trial of sexually assaulting a woman in a Dublin hotel room years earlier. As a result, McGregor was ordered to pay €250,000 in damages.
