​Longtime analyst Chael Sonnen sees two sides to the Conor McGregor story after his devastating return at UFC 329. After five years away from competition, McGregor, 22-7 overall with 10-5 in the UFC, stepped back into the spotlight to rematch Max Holloway, who entered as 28-9 overall with a UFC ledger of 24-9. The Las Vegas headliner at T-Mobile Arena began with a bang that proved to be more like a premature ending: McGregor leapt with a flying kick that misfired, sending him tumbling in an awkward fall, and it was immediately apparent that the night was going to unfold unfavorably for him.
In the ensuing moments, McGregor struggled to find balance and land any effective strikes, and referee Mike Beltran ultimately stepped in at Holloway’s urging to wave off the contest. The official ending arrived a mere 69 seconds after the bell, and the lack of a definitive finish—despite the immense pre-fight hype—left both the arena and viewers at home with a palpable sense of anticlimax.
Sonnen laid out the two-sided interpretation in an interview with MMA Junkie on Sunday. “It was one of those nights where there was nothing to take away from it,” he said. “There was no redeemable quality. I would never kick a man when he’s down. I would always help him up. I feel Conor can handle this: Conor knew. And in many ways, it was a very courageous thing. You’ve got all these Conor haters out there saying, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this happened. Call him McFraud.’ Maybe we didn’t know what you were dealing with, but you did, and you faced it head-on and walked into the arena anyway. There is another side to this story. But ultimately the story is: We can’t do this work anymore.”
Sonnen described the moment as one of the most sobering in the sport’s recent memory. He recalled a particular sequence that crystallized his feelings: there was a punch that underscored the physical limits of McGregor’s comeback. “There was one other moment, and it was the bad one for me where I go, ‘We can’t do this work anymore.’ It was actually a punch. Conor threw a punch and he went down. He fell forward like a drunk guy. All the way to his knee. He hadn’t thrown punches at full speed in so long, he lost his own balance doing it. No part of me is teasing. That was the real moment.”
Sonnen pointed out that McGregor, now 37, appeared determined to step back into the octagon at UFC 329 despite the heavy toll of his recent history, including the leg injury sustained in the 2021 trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier, after which he was carried out in a wheelchair. The turmoil in McGregor’s life—ranging from substance-abuse issues to a 2024 Irish court ruling finding him liable in a sexual assault case and other personal entanglements—has long been documented and has led many observers to question whether he still warrants a heavyweight platform in the UFC.
Yet McGregor did earn a main-event slot at UFC 329, and Sonnen believes there is a legitimate possibility that this could be the last-time appearance on such a stage. The reason, however, is not solely about off‑the‑cage conduct but what happened inside the cage that night. With McGregor carrying just one fight remaining on his current UFC contract, the stakes are unusually high. The conclusion of UFC 329, in Sonnen’s view, may not just mark an end to a single fight but could signal a broader turning point for the career of one of the sport’s most polarizing and transformative figures.