Conor McGregor has sensationally called for his disastrous UFC 329 comeback loss to Max Holloway to be overturned to a no contest, while also revealing fans will soon receive a definitive update on the injury that ended his return after just 69 seconds.
Only days after his long-awaited comeback ended in heartbreaking fashion in Las Vegas, the former two-division UFC champ insists the official result should not stand.
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McGregor opened Sunday’s fight with a jumping kick, appearing to injure his right knee as he landed awkwardly.
Moments later, he slipped while attempting another kick, making it immediately clear something had gone seriously wrong.
The Irishman has since undergone scans and says he will soon reveal the full extent of the injury.
McGregor shared the latest update via Instagram on Thursday.
“A few notes,” a text image posted by McGregor read. “1. I will have the results of the scan on my leg tomorrow. 2. The fight should be a no contest and all bets returned.”
It appears highly unlikely the UFC would overturn the result, with plenty of injury stoppages historically recorded as TKO losses unless an illegal foul is involved.
Ironically, ‘Notorious’ has experienced a similar outcome before. In his previous UFC appearance at UFC 264, he suffered a broken leg against Dustin Poirier and was handed a first-round TKO defeat via doctor’s stoppage.
McGregor has already indicated surgery is likely, after which he plans to begin preparing for the final fight of his current UFC contract.
Speaking of Poirier, the former fighter made it clear he had little sympathy for McGregor after Sunday’s fight.
“I thought it couldn’t have happened to a better guy,” Poirier told the Deep Waters podcast.
“That injury couldn’t have happened to a better guy. Earlier this week, he said karma is a mirror, and it definitely is.
“This guy is a dirtbag, and I don’t know if it was nervous energy or what. I don’t know why you would start a fight like that.”
McGregor’s opening attack also left Poirier stunned, questioning the logic behind launching such a high-risk technique at the start of a fight.
“I don’t know why you would start a fight like that. They’re saying this was planned to start the fight like that, and there’s footage of him training to open the fight with this jump kick,” Poirier said.
“But I just don’t understand why you would do that. It’s like a Hail Mary, you’re throwing a Hail Mary to start a 25-minute fight. I don’t understand what was going on with that.”
Despite their bitter history, Poirier admitted he would happily throw down with McGregor one more time.
“Whenever he is healed up, hit me up, Conor,” Poirier said.
“I’ll come back and whip you again. I would come back to whip him again at 170.”
Speaking separately on The Fight with Teddy Atlas, Poirier defended the Irishman when asked whether McGregor may have entered the bout already injured and simply rolled the dice.
“If that was the scenario and he knew he was injured and he just said, ‘It’s either me or him the first minute, somebody’s going to fall, I’m going to just go out there and get in his face and throw until one of us goes down,’ wouldn’t you do it with punches?” Poirier said.
“Why would you do it with an injured weapon?”
Poirier also rejected the idea McGregor deliberately created an excuse for defeat.
“I’ve just had a lot of time with Conor over the past 12 years and I just don’t think he’s a quitter like that. I don’t know if that’s possible with him,” he explained.
“If he wanted a built-in excuse, a storyline that’s already wrote itself and he can blame it on his leg, do something dumb, I don’t know if he’s that type of guy.
“I’ll say a lot of bad stuff about him, but a quitter, I’m not sure.
“He’s a real competitor and wants to win and I doubt he needed the money.”
Poirier did, however, question McGregor’s physical condition heading into the fight.
“Definitely he looked bloated,” Poirier said.
“I thought his face looked a little shiny, under his eyes looked a little full, his cheeks looked full. That could be because he’s been living an unhealthy lifestyle.
EVERY KO & submission from UFC 329 | 05:53
“When you don’t live the healthiest lifestyle, your body is more susceptible to injuries,” he added.
“It weakens everything when you live an unhealthy lifestyle, so that could have been part of it as well. The shiny, swollen face could have been telling us the whole time this guy’s coming into this not at 100 percent.”