Conor McGregor has denied he was carrying an injury coming into his much-hyped UFC 329 fight with Max Holloway in Las Vegas.
McGregor’s return to the octagon lasted little more than a minute on Saturday after the Irishman blew out his knee and retired injured, and he later insisted: “This came out of nowhere.”
Former two-weight world champion McGregor, who had not fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021, attempted a flying kick to start the opening round but landed awkwardly and immediately looked in trouble. He tried to fight on for a few seconds but looked towards the referee to signal he could not continue.
Social media sleuths pointed to video of McGregor arriving at the octagon and stepping gingerly out of his shoes, in supposed evidence of a pre-exisiting injury before the fight. But the 37-year-old denied he was carrying a problem before the bout began.
“My head gasket is gone,” McGregor tweeted. “Destroyed. I had no injury / injuries going into the fight. 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.”
UFC supremo Dana White backed McGregor, suggesting a viewer would have spotted an issue had he been injured at the pre-fight press conference or weigh-in events.
Asked if McGregor was carrying an injury before the fight, White replied. “I have no idea. The day of the press conference, he came running out of the back and ran right up [to Holloway] and stopped abruptly, they were pushing foreheads… I wouldn’t know that but the doctors checked before the fight. He looked damn good at the press conference and he looked fine at the weigh-ins.
“Just on my accounts, the face-off has had 80 million views. So if there was a pre-existing [injury], somebody would have noticed it. Nobody noticed anything.”
Former featherweight champ Holloway said he would discuss the possibility of staging another fight with McGregor when the Irishman recovers.
“It is what it is, I’m going to sit down with the UFC,” he added. “(There was) so much hype for that right there. We’ve got to run it back one more time. One more time for the boys.”
Injuries and issues away from the sport have derailed McGregor’s career.
After breaking his leg against Poirier five years ago, the 37-year-old was slated to meet Michael Chandler in June 2024 but that was cancelled after McGregor suffered a broken toe in training.
Later that year, a jury in an Irish civil court found him liable for rape in 2018.
In October 2025, he accepted an 18-month ban for “whereabouts failures” after he missed three attempts by Combat Sports Anti-Doping to collect biological samples from him in 2024. The ban was backdated and expired in March.
In the co-main event at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, Britain’s Paddy Pimblett also needed less than a minute to secure victory, choking out Frenchman Benoit Saint-Denis in their lightweight bout.
At his post-fight press conference, Holloway said he had also tried to stop the fight.
“I told the ref ‘stop the fight, he doesn’t want to fight. His demeanour isn’t right’. He (referee) said ‘fight’ the first time,” the 34-year-old added. “So I backed up and he stood up. He tried to do a hop step, then he did it again, and when he went back he grabbed his leg and screamed ... I’m not trying to beat up a wounded dog.”
The bout was the second between the pair, with McGregor winning by unanimous decision in 2013.
Asked if it would be hard to sell a potential trilogy fight to fans after the nature of his win on Saturday, Holloway said: “Not at all. You saw the numbers this thing was getting. You can just push it as ‘he got an injury, wow, who cares’.”
