McGregor suffers suspected blown ACL on return as Holloway ends UFC 329 comeback

Conor McGregor’s five-year comeback ended in seconds at UFC 329 on Saturday night in Las Vegas, as the former two-division champion appeared to suffer a serious knee injury on his very first offensive move against Max Holloway at the T-Mobile Arena.

McGregor threw a jumping roundhouse kick to open the fight and landed badly, immediately drawing concern from ringside. His team helped him out of the octagon, and the Irishman made a swift exit from the arena to seek medical attention — refusing crutches despite visibly limping as he left.

At the post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White offered a candid assessment of what he witnessed. “Five years off in this sport is rough,” White said. “I was expecting at least a one-round war or who knew what Conor was capable of as far as cardio or whatever else after a five-year layoff. There you go.”

White stopped short of a formal diagnosis but made his suspicions clear. “We’re assuming blown ACL. I’m no doctor but that’s what I figured when I saw it and the doctors think the same thing, too,” he said, adding that a full picture would only emerge once McGregor undergoes an MRI.

The injury carries particular weight given McGregor’s history. He tore his ACL in his first meeting with Holloway back in 2013 — a fight that also took place early in his career — and recovered relatively quickly at the time. But McGregor is approaching his 38th birthday and is now dealing with a significant knee injury to his right leg, having previously broken his left leg during the trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier in 2021, which triggered the five-year absence that preceded Saturday’s return.

White declined to speculate on what comes next for McGregor until the full extent of the damage is confirmed. A torn ACL would typically mean at least a year on the sidelines, and given McGregor’s age and injury history, serious questions now surround whether he will compete again at all. His future in the sport remains entirely uncertain until the medical results are in.