{"id":581773,"date":"2026-07-12T12:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/581773\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T12:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:10:12","slug":"conor-mcgregors-long-awaited-ufc-return-ends-after-69-seconds-with-knee-injury-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/581773\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor\u2019s long-awaited UFC return ends after 69 seconds with knee injury \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/conor-mcgregor\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/conor-mcgregor\">Conor McGregor<\/a>\u2019s return against Max Holloway at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ufc\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/ufc\">UFC<\/a> 329 in Las Vegas ended at just 1:09 of the first round Saturday night because of a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fighting for the first time in more than five years, the 37-year-old McGregor flew across the ring with a flying left roundhouse kick when the match started and landed awkwardly on his right knee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">After attempting to kick and strike Holloway (28-9-0) two more times, it was clear McGregor (22-7-0) couldn\u2019t finish the scheduled five-round welterweight bout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cFive years off in this sport is rough,\u201d UFC President Dana White said. \u201cWe\u2019re assuming a blown ACL. That\u2019s what I assumed when I saw it, and that\u2019s what the doctors think, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhat can I say? I had him weak in the knees I guess,\u201d Holloway, who had started the fight as the hot favourite, said. \u201cSo much hype. We\u2019ve got to run it back one more time,\u201d he said. \u201cFor it to end like this sucks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Max Holloway and Conor McGregor fight at UFC 329 in Las Vegas. Photograph: Tom Hogan\/Inpho\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FVCSPNEMJIVN7D4DQEGLURM67A.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"549\"\/>Max Holloway and Conor McGregor fight at UFC 329 in Las Vegas. Photograph: Tom Hogan\/Inpho <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">McGregor, who strolled to the ring to the sounds of the Notorious BIG\u2019s \u2018Hypnotize\u2019 and the roar of the sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena, last fought exactly five years and a day before Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In what McGregor called \u201cthe comeback of all comebacks in sports history\u201d, the bout was a rematch of a 2013 featherweight fight which the Irishman won by unanimous decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">McGregor had not fought since breaking his left leg in a 2021 defeat to American Dustin Poirier. McGregor had been the UFC\u2019s most marketable star before that injury, in 2016 becoming the first to hold two titles simultaneously at different weights. He reportedly earned more than $100m for losing a boxing superfight against Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2017.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">McGregor\u2019s last UFC victory was a 40-second triumph over American Donald Cerrone in January 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor\u2019s return against Max Holloway at UFC 329 in Las Vegas ended at just 1:09 of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,4003,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,4456],"class_list":["post-581773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-ufc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116906940069526122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}