Conor McGregor’s return against Max Holloway at UFC 329 in Las Vegas ended after just 69 seconds of the first round because of a knee injury.

Fighting for the first time in more than five years, the 37-year-old McGregor flew across the ring with a left roundhouse kick when the bout started and landed awkwardly on his right knee. After attempting to kick and strike Holloway (28-9-0) two more times, it was clear McGregor (22-7-0) could not finish the scheduled five-round welterweight bout. McGregor, who strolled to the ring to the sounds of the Notorious BIG’s Hypnotize and the roar of the sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena, last fought five years and a day before the bout on Saturday night. 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. After the fight on Saturday, McGregor denied he had been injured in the run up to the event. Here’s what McGregor wrote on social media:

“I was throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight. This came out of nowhere. I am beyond dark here. I can only describe it as hell.”

McGregor had not fought since breaking his left leg in a 2021 defeat against the American Dustin ­Poirier. McGregor had been the UFC’s 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 after losing a ­boxing ­superfight against Floyd ­Mayweather Jr in 2017. McGregor was also embroiled in multiple lawsuits during his time away from the octagon, and became aligned with hard-right figures ­during an aborted run for the Irish ­presidency. McGregor’s last UFC victory was a 40-second triumph against the American Donald Cerrone in January 2020.

In his post-fight interview, Holloway praised McGregor for wanting the fight to continue and he elaborated on the conversation speaking to reporters after the event:

“I had the man weak in the knees, I guess. All jokes aside, I just hope he’s good. I know Conor’s been battling some stuff. Looked like he’d really been changing. He found God, he had his kids in there, so during the fight you could obviously tell his demeanour changed. Shout out to the ref, I was trying to tell the ref sooner.“