You’re right Connie, karma is a mirror.
Former UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, who also held gold at 145 pounds, returned to the Octagon after a five-year absence atop the UFC 329 fight card last Sat. night (July 11, 2026) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, his first MMA fight since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 back in summer 2021.
Max Holloway won the fight, but McGregor is the one who did most of the damage.
Their welterweight main event was over in just
69 seconds, thanks to a self-inflicted knee injury suffered by McGregor. Unfortunately, it happens at this level of competition. Tom Aspinall suffered a similar injury against Curtis Blaydes at UFC London and Patrick Cote blew out his knee against Anderson Silva at UFC 90.
That said, McGregor is held to a different standard.
Even T-Mobile Arena nosebleeds were selling for thousands of dollars, which is why UFC 329 set the all-time record for gates at $25 million. On top of that, McGregor spent the last several weeks talking about all the horrible things he was going to do to Holloway, a beating so bad “Blessed” would be forced to retire.
Perhaps McGregor is the one who should be calling it quits.
“My head gasket is gone,” McGregor wrote on social media. “Destroyed. I had no injury [or] injuries going into the fight. 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.”
It’s clear that a large portion of the combat sports fan base was willing to overlook the Irishman’s despicable past, one that includes sexual assault, in exchange for a vintage McGregor performance. There was a time when “Notorious” racked up five straight knockouts — and five straight performance bonuses.
Then came fame, fortune, and a 1-5 record over the last 10 years, which includes a brain-battering loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the second half of 2017. His first comeback attempt ended in June 2024 after McGregor broke his pinky toe and withdrew from his Michael Chandler fight at UFC 303.
He was replaced by another fighter with a broken pinky toe, who went on to win the main event.
McGregor, who turns 38 on Tuesday, has one fight left on his existing UFC contract and is currently penciled in for April 2027. Whether or not “Notorious” makes good on that predetermined timeline or goes back to wiping his rich ass with our feelings remains to be seen, but a lot of people got screwed by the UFC 329 headliner.
It’s a fitting end for McGregor’s UFC legacy.
UFC wasn’t selling McGregor, it was selling nostalgia.
Without nostalgia, the fond memories of a once-great champion, UFC had little to offer. McGregor (22-7) was absent for five years and coming off two defeats to Dustin Poirier. And just like his second loss to “The Diamond,” the last thing we’ll remember is a brittle, wounded fighter who gave us nothing but empty threats.
For more UFC 329 results and highlights click here.
