McGregor loses to Holloway in 69 seconds on UFC return

CONOR MCGREGOR LOST to Max Holloway after only 69 seconds because of a right knee injury on Saturday, in his return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship after a five-year layoff.

Referee Mike Beltran stopped the mixed martial arts welterweight contest at UFC 329 in Las Vegas after McGregor, 37, fell to the mat three times in the first minute.

McGregor jumped and launched a roundhouse kick at Holloway in the opening seconds, but hurt his right knee as he planted his foot.

Advertisement

He crumpled twice more and grabbed at his right knee, prompting Beltran to end the bout.

In what McGregor called “the comeback of all comebacks in sports history”, the bout was a rematch of a 2013 featherweight fight which the Irishman won by unanimous decision.

McGregor had not fought since breaking his left leg in a 2021 defeat to American Dustin Poirier.

McGregor’s last UFC victory was a 40-second triumph over American Donald Cerrone in January 2020.

In November 2024, McGregor was found civilly liable in a High Court damages case in Dublin taken by a woman who accused him of rape.

The woman won her claim against McGregor after accusing the professional fighter of raping her in a Dublin hotel in December 2018.

- Additional reporting, AFP