LAS VEGAS – Conor McGregor spent the build-up to UFC 329 insisting that he was the old version of his Notorious self, but the misfortune we all witnessed in the Octagon at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday only bore one truth.
The Mac isn’t back. The Mac is done. And frankly, the entire thing should have never been allowed to happen.
On his first attempted strike of the fight, McGregor appeared to injure himself on a flying knee attempt and took a bad step moments later, leaving referee Herb Dean no choice but to call the fight and leave the highest-paying crowd in UFC history in a state of sobered disbelief. Max Holloway attempted to raise the mood afterward by suggesting a third fight between himself and McGregor, but the cavernous silence in the arena following felt overwhelmingly like the response of a crowd who has fallen for this shtick for the last time.
“I was expecting at least a one-round war,” Dana White said. “Who knew what Conor was capable of as far as cardio or whatever else after a five-year layoff. Well, there you go. We’re assuming it’s a blown ACL. I’m no doctor, but that’s what I figured when I saw it, and doctors think the same thing too.”
When asked if a trilogy could potentially be in the works, White was predictably non-committal, which is typical of his post-fight media appearances. However, at the very least, his tone didn’t sound like a man who was too enthralled at the possibility of running this disaster back again.
“I don’t even know,” White said. “I don’t know. It’s got to take some time. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I don’t like talking about making fights the night of the fight. Definitely not in this scenario.”
To tell the complete truth, I felt an immediate vibe shift in the arena when McGregor made his walk to the Octagon, and not in the positive way that so many McGregor walkouts have turned an arena inside out before. This time, McGregor looked dazed and almost somber, to the point where I began to ask myself and those around me if he was potentially under the influence. That speculation was only fueled by the fact that McGregor appeared to stumble when taking his shoes off for the fight.
In hindsight, obviously the more plausible explanation is that he was entering the Octagon with a pre-existing injury and knew he was on the verge of another heartbreaking setback. The somber, disconnected look was the look of a man who knew he was saying a final goodbye to the sport he turned into a global phenomenon. A pre-existing knee injury would certainly explain the stumble, as well as the fact that McGregor didn’t make much of an effort to plant his bad leg on what turned out to be the fateful kick attempt. For what it’s worth, even Holloway noted that McGregor didn’t quite look like himself during the walkout.
“Even with him walking into the Octagon, it just didn’t seem like the same Conor,” McGregor said. “I thought he’d be a little bit more rowdy, a little bit more crazy. He looked really, really calm, like super calm. So I was just kind of like, ‘oh wow!’. I see how this goes, and then of course I knew he was gonna attack me with something and it was that kick”
Dana White was asked about the potential of a pre-existing injury after the fight, but the reporter who asked the question framed it as if McGregor’s stumble occurred at the weigh-ins as opposed to the moments immediately before the fight. White was adamant that he had no knowledge of a pre-existing injury and that it wasn’t a concern raised by anyone leading into the fight.
“The doctors checked him out before the fight, he looked damn good at the press conference, and he looked fine at the weigh-ins,” White said. “Just on my accounts, the face-off (on Wednesday) is at 80 million views, right? If there was a pre-existing injury, somebody would have noticed it.”
Holloway joked after the fight that he had McGregor weak in the knees, but he took a more heartfelt and introspective approach when discussing the injury and the bout in general from his own perspective.
“All jokes aside, I just hope he’s good,” Holloway said. “I know Conor’s been battling some stuff. It looks like he’s really been changing. He found God. He had his kids there. During the fight, you could obviously tell his demeanor changed. Shout out to the ref, I was trying to tell the ref sooner. Like, this guy’s kids are in the front row, I don’t want to see him take unnecessary damage.”
