Adesanya claims pre-fight footage shows McGregor entered UFC 329 injured

Israel Adesanya has publicly questioned whether Conor McGregor entered his UFC 329 rematch with Max Holloway already carrying a right-leg injury, pointing to footage from the pre-fight inspection as evidence. McGregor lost the bout in just 69 seconds after appearing to suffer a knee injury in the opening round — his second high-profile comeback to end in anticlimactic fashion.

Speaking on his Precision with Mighty & Izzy podcast alongside former UFC star Demetrious Johnson, the former UFC middleweight champion said he noticed McGregor visibly avoiding weight-bearing on his right leg during the pre-fight medical check.

“I have eyes,” Adesanya said. “When they did the replay and he took the Crocs off, he didn’t put weight on that right leg. He didn’t. I know he was throwing it in the locker room… When Conor took off the Crocs, as much as he said afterwards, ‘I wasn’t hurt before the fight,’ I saw he didn’t put weight on the right leg. And that tells me something.”

McGregor has firmly denied entering the fight with a pre-existing condition. His coach John Kavanagh and UFC CEO Dana White have both backed that account.

The debate echoes McGregor’s 2021 trilogy loss to Dustin Poirier, which was also later revealed to have involved a leg injury sustained before the bout concluded. The pattern has intensified scrutiny around the Irishman’s physical condition heading into high-stakes fights.

Adesanya stopped short of making a definitive claim, framing his assessment as an observation rather than a confirmed diagnosis — but his reading of the footage adds a prominent voice to growing speculation about the true circumstances surrounding McGregor’s latest defeat.