​Javier Mendez did not want to see Conor McGregor go out the way he did against Max Holloway.Returning for the first time since July 2021, McGregor blew out his right knee in just 69 seconds in this past Saturday’s UFC 329 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He landed awkwardly from the first jumping switch kick he threw and fell down multiple times, which prompted referee Mike Beltran to stop the fight. McGregor revealed that he’s set to undergo surgery to repair what many project is a torn ACL.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMcGregor (22-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) through the years has engaged in a heated and personal rivalry with Mendez’s star champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and the pair are yet to bury the hatchet. However, that doesn’t mean Mendez is taking the opportunity to pile on McGregor.”To have a warrior like him train as hard as he did after a five-year layoff and come back, and to have something like that happen, your heart has to go out to the guy,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “Look, I may not like him as a person at times, but I have to respect what a great warrior he is. To see him go out that way is not the way I would want anyone to go out.”You’d want him to go out doing what they came out there to do: perform. Either the other man was the better man or you were the better man, but he beat himself on that one, and I feel for him. That’s not something I wouldn’t want for anybody. He deserved to either become victorious or lose to Max, but that’s the way it needed to go.”The same can’t be said for UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev, who reacted to McGregor’s loss.”Conor beat Conor congrats Max.”This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Khabib’s coach: ‘Your heart has to go out’ to Conor McGregor after UFC 329