​This won’t be the final chapter for Conor McGregor, the salesman. He has repeatedly insisted, “I will return,” even after his second round-one injury in as many fights—five years apart. Yet this marks the end of Conor McGregor, the marketable commodity. The buildup to his comeback on Saturday already sat a notch below the peak hype of his prime, dulled perhaps by a long layoff, advancing age, a battered body, and a civil case in which a jury found him liable for sexual assault. And while it should be noted that McGregor, who unsuccessfully appealed that 2024 verdict, continues to deny the allegations against him, one could argue he is in denial about his own fighting career.
Five years after his leg was shattered in the first round at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena against Dustin Poirier, McGregor was barely past the one-minute mark against Max Holloway. A blown ACL, it seems, marked the moment of his abrupt decline at UFC 329—or perhaps the signal of a longer, more gradual downfall.
McGregor sustained a knee injury and then kept buckling beneath his own weight, shaking his head to call off the fight (Getty). The trouble this time originated with the other leg, injured in the first two seconds when McGregor sprinted in, launched a jump, and threw a high kick at his Hawaiian opponent. So, while some wondered whether McGregor’s worst-case scenario on Saturday would be a fresh break of the same leg, there’s an argument that this outcome was even worse. It was certainly unforeseen.
Yet there’s a sense of being misled, even conned. It should have been predictable. Perhaps McGregor’s relative inactivity since 2016 (five UFC fights across a decade, plus one boxing match with Floyd Mayweather) has camouflaged a harsher truth: McGregor is one of those athletes who is, tragically for him, built from glass.
Because Saturday’s incident could be framed as an older fighter, past his prime, betrayed by his body, but a closer look—and the benefit of hindsight—reframes the story. McGregor first injured himself against Holloway in 2013. He fought through an injury to face Chad Mendes in 2015. He just barely healed in time to fight Eddie Alvarez in 2016. He warned that his foot looked “like a balloon” during MMA’s fiercest feud against Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018. A stress fracture finally gave way when he faced Poirier for the third time in 2021. A broken toe thwarted his planned bout with Michael Chandler in 2024. And now this latest setback.
McGregor, who turns 38 on Tuesday, quickly moved to dismiss theories that he had carried a pre-existing injury into UFC 329, for what it’s worth. Various pre-fight moments—from his backstage warm-up to his walkout—were replayed in slow motion by fans and on the UFC broadcast itself, with many suggesting he appeared to be awkward on his feet for the sake of SEO, a moment that only added to the spectacle and speculation surrounding his condition.