Conor McGregor was wide awake in the scary hours Sunday morning, left to lament his loss on X instead of celebrate his win on the Las Vegas Strip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so sharp and so ready for this fight I cannot believe what has happened,\u201d he wrote at 2:29 a.m. \u201c\u2026I will overcome this. I will not be deterred. I will return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks, but no thanks.<\/p>\n
If any doubt lingered five years after McGregor\u2019s last fight in the UFC that he wasn\u2019t shopworn and well past his peak, he sure did erase it on Saturday night. His failed roundhouse five seconds into his fight with Max Holloway at T-Mobile Arena left him helpless and bound for defeat \u2013 ending his comeback in 69 seconds.<\/p>\n
The sellout crowd of 20,078 departed as swiftly and sullen as McGregor, who left the venue shirtless, barefoot, heartbroken \u2013 surely knowingly he\u2019s Notorious no more. Still the UFC\u2019s top star and draw \u2014 as evidenced by its record gate of $26.4 million, as announced by President Dana White \u2014 the Irish superstar shouldn\u2019t be summoned to headline another one of its cards again.<\/p>\n
Not with one win since 2016.<\/p>\n
Added White, noting UFC doctors believe McGregor (22-7, 19 knockouts) tore his right ACL: \u201cEverybody who knows anything about the fight business, and it\u2019s been a topic of discussion leading up to this fight \u2013 five years off in this sport is rough. \u2026 I was expecting at least a one-round war. Who knew what Conor was capable of as far as cardio and whatever else after a five-year layoff?\u201d<\/p>\n
Next to nothing, White would learn.<\/p>\n
At least the crowd was treated again to \u201cHypnotize\u201d by Notorious B.I.G., the East Coast hip-hop anthem to which McGregor made another walk to the cage. Its bounce, bassline and Brooklyn bravado once signaled to fight fans a beatdown would begin, serving instead Saturday as a solemn soundtrack of what used to be.<\/p>\n
The dictation of distance, snapping strikes and laser left hand are products of the past, his pre-fight proclamations but bloviated bluster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can destroy Max inside 10 seconds,\u201d McGregor said on Thursday during the promotional press conference. \u201cI have knockouts inside three seconds on my fighting record. I have Hall Of Fame fighters, multiples, Hall Of Fame UFC fighters, defeated and destroyed, both together in under a minute. And I can add Max to that. However, don\u2019t get it twisted. If we go into those deep waters, Max is going to be in a lot of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
But resumes don\u2019t influence outcomes. Skill, will and preparation do, and McGregor\u2019s skills and physical capabilities have atrophied through the five years in between his last two fights. Filthy rich amid the windfall of his 2017 boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather \u2014 that spurred his inactivity in UFC and preceded the launch of his whiskey line, Proper Twelve \u2014 he acknowledged last week how alcohol has taken a toll on his fighting spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trapped and caught, and it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trapped, caught, out of the cage and devoid of the discipline and desperation that powered his rise as a two-weight champion and biggest-ever star in the UFC.<\/p>\n
McGregor\u2019s previous loss \u2013 a five-minute beatdown by Dustin Poirier on July 10, 2021 during which he broke his left leg \u2013 foreshadowed his ineffectiveness against Holloway, a sizable favorite on Saturday who resisted the urge to punish him further. His errant kick made standing a struggle, forget trading punches altogether.<\/p>\n
Said Holloway: \u201cHe was done. He wanted to fight. Tried to stand up again. Fall back down. I just hope (he has) a speedy recovery. All love to him. The man \u2026 is trying to change his life around, so, sending prayers his way. \u2026 Even with him walking into the octagon, it didn\u2019t seem, it just didn\u2019t seem like the same Conor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Same star, yes. Same fighter, far from it.<\/p>\n
No wonder McGregor struggled to sleep.<\/p>\n
Contact Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on X. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor was wide awake in the scary hours Sunday morning, left to lament his loss on X…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-796596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}