What we know about Conor McGregor’s leg injury at UFC 329

Conor McGregor’s ostentatious UFC comeback lasted all of 69 seconds. And the moment he hoped would redirect attention from his past decade of turmoil instead provided new fodder for questions and conspiracy theories about his health and standing as the most famous star in his sport.

His loss to Max Holloway at UFC 329 is pretty easy to describe given that the whole fight could fit easily into a YouTube short. He tried a pair of jumping head kicks, tumbled to the mat each time, and was quickly forced to acknowledge that he could not continue because of an injured right leg.

The confusion was immediate, and the questions poured in: Did he enter the night with an injury? Did something happen during the walkout? Or could he truly have suffered such a severe injury just seconds into his first fight in five years?

McGregor himself insisted on social media late Saturday night that he had no injuries entering the fight. “I was throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight. This came out of nowhere,” he posted on X.

UFC CEO Dana White speculated after the fight that McGregor had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, but acknowledged that he did not know because McGregor had not yet been properly examined. Later Saturday night, White posted a video of McGregor warming up in the locker room, throwing kicks similar to what he attempted in the octagon, without any hint of injury.

The timing of an injury is an important, sensitive subject, especially in combat sports. The disclosure of a pre-existing injury would affect betting lines and potentially jeopardize the entire event, with huge monetary implications. And White, like most sports promoters, is extremely protective of the action on the mat being real and unforeseen.

In the days leading up to UFC 329, McGregor showed no signs of worry or distrust of his legs — both the left, which he broke in 2021 in a fight against Dustin Poirier, and the right, which took him out of the fight Saturday night.

Last week, McGregor came running out onto the stage during a news conference, then strutted to the scale at the ceremonial weigh-in, where he bounced around and stared down Holloway.

But after his warmup, the expression on McGregor’s face visibly changed as the moment to actually fight got closer.

The first time fans saw him sauntering toward the cage, he was in the bowels of the T-Mobile Arena walking confidently with an Irish flag around his shoulders and a serious look on his face.

As he turned the corner to enter the floor, he gave a wink with a smile, then walked through the pyrotechnic fog with his arms raised.

From the tunnel to cageside, his gait remained steady and without hitch, but that changed as he went to remove his walkout shoes. In slow-motion footage shared by Paramount+, the official broadcast partner of the UFC, McGregor first looked down at his right leg as he attempted to remove his shoe with the heel of his left foot, then bounced gingerly on his toes five times.

It wasn’t clear enough to declare an injury, and if there was any discomfort, he didn’t seem to mention it to the team around him. After taking a sip of water and hugging his coaches, he climbed the octagon steps, pausing to extend his arms and soak in the adoration of the sold-out crowd.

In the cage, McGregor did his signature strut around the mat, but Holloway said after the fight he immediately noticed something was off: “He didn’t seem like the same Conor.”

As in-cage announcer Bruce Buffer rolled through his introductions, Holloway said McGregor was calmer than he expected. The former two-division champ certainly lacked the pre-fight snarl he displayed in the previous weeks of fiery buildup.

Once the fight started, McGregor immediately took four steps forward and then lunged at Holloway with a leaping left kick, landing awkwardly on his right foot. He immediately stumbled to the ground, then quickly returned to his feet and tried another left head kick two seconds later. This time, he fell flat on his backside as his right leg failed to stabilize the landing.

A minute later, after yet another stumble to the ground, Holloway was pointing to McGregor’s leg and calling on referee Mike Beltran to intervene. Once McGregor tried to switch stances and clutched his knee in pain, Beltran called off the fight.

“He grabbed his leg and screamed,” Holloway said. “I was telling the ref, ‘Come on, bro. What do you want me to do?’”

He added: “I ain’t trying to beat up a wounded dog.”

McGregor fled T-Mobile Arena immediately after the fight, without waiting for Holloway’s hand to be raised. He declined to speak with media, including the color commentator Joe Rogan in the octagon. Videos posted to social media later showed him walking with a limp directly out of the arena and toward a parking lot, still shirtless, barefoot and wearing his fighting trunks.

The UFC later confirmed that McGregor would not answer questions from reporters.

On the postfight broadcast, UFC commentators Daniel Cormier and Rogan both said they believed the injury occurred during the fight, a sentiment echoed by former fighters Dominik Cruz, Chris Weidman and Michael Bisping on the postfight show.

John Kavanagh, McGregor’s longtime coach, denounced the idea of a preexisting injury in a post Sunday on Facebook.

“That opening jump switch kick was drilled daily for months, multiple times in warmup,” he wrote. “Never an issue. Knee went when he (threw) the very first kick. Doesn’t get any worse than this. Looking forward to seeing my family in a few days.”

The conspiracy theory of McGregor competing despite being already hurt stems in part from the idea that fighters get paid for competing, regardless of how the fight goes. In 2022, TJ Dillashaw fought for the bantamweight title with a severe shoulder injury that he hid before the bout. In 2015, boxer Manny Pacquiao had a shoulder injury that hindered him when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum acknowledged afterward that they had considered postponing the fight.

McGregor’s return Saturday was less about a payday than about getting his UFC career back. He’s made hundreds of millions of dollars in fight purses over his career. And he called off a fight in 2024 with a seemingly less severe injury, a broken pinkie toe scuttling his bout with Michael Chandler.

But as the wait continues for MRI results and clarity over the injury, the thousands of fans whose disappointment turned to anger after Saturday’s fight will continue to question how exactly the UFC 329 main event fell apart.

“I was so sharp and so ready for this fight,” McGregor said in a later post. “I cannot believe what has happened. The talk of me being off while walking into the fight is nonsense. I was calm, ready, and confident. I am in shock what has taken place.”