![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783841972_460_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nLAS VEGAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Conor McGregor\u2019s return against Max Holloway at UFC 329 ended at just 1:09 of the first round Saturday night because of a knee injury.<\/p>\n
Fighting for the first time in more than five years, McGregor flew across the ring with a flying left roundhouse kick when the match started and landed awkwardly on his right knee.<\/p>\n
After attempting to kick and strike Holloway (28-9-0) two more times, it was clear McGregor (22-7-0) couldn\u2019t finish the scheduled five-round welterweight bout.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive years off in this sport is rough,\u201d UFC president Dana White said. \u201cWe\u2019re assuming a blown ACL. That\u2019s what I assumed when I saw it, and that\u2019s what the doctors think too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holloway closed a -300 favorite at Bet MGM Sportsbook, which means a bettor would have to lay $300 to win $100. McGregor was a +240 underdog, which means a bettor would win $240 with a $100 wager on the Irishman.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Conor McGregor reacts after losing to Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at UFC 329 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
(John Locher \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
McGregor, who strolled to the ring to the sounds of Notorious B.I.G.\u2019s \u201cHypnotize\u201d and the roar of the sold-out crowd, last fought exactly five years and a day ago before Saturday night.<\/p>\n
To the delight of a frenzied audience just hours after his home country of England won its quarterfinal match over Norway in the World Cup, Liverpool\u2019s Paddy Pimblett (24-4-0) made quick work of Benoit Saint Denis (17-4-0) with a first-round TKO. Pimblett, who closed a +120 underdog, blocked a roundkick, shot in and quickly applied a front headlock to put Saint Denis to sleep for the win in 52 seconds.<\/p>\n
In a bantamweight battle, Mario Bautista (18-3-0) defeated Cory Sandhagen (18-7-0) by unanimous decision, after taking advantage of a first-round leg kick and applying pressure in each round after. A flurry of punches in the third round secured the decision.<\/p>\n
In a scheduled three-round flyweight bout, Brandon Royval (18-9-0) applied a rear-naked choke on Lone\u2019er Kavanagh (10-2-0) to win by submission at the 3:40 mark of the final round.<\/p>\n
In an absolute shocker to start the main card, a bloodied King Green (36-17-0) overcame a beating for nearly the entire first round before landing a right hand to the jaw of Terrance McKinney (18-9-0) with roughly 20 seconds left, and then finished him off for a TKO at the 4:59 mark.<\/p>\n
Ramirez writes for the Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Conor McGregor\u2019s return against Max Holloway at UFC 329 ended at just 1:09 of the first round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[158999,145817,158998,58677,70887,48,52,51,47,50,49,22169,158996,150898,158997,2699,52972,16408,18873,159000,72],"class_list":["post-395468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-benoit-saint-denis","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-first-round-saturday-night","tag-home-country","tag-knee-injury","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-match","tag-max-holloway","tag-mcgregor","tag-paddy-pimblett","tag-return","tag-ring","tag-round","tag-ufc","tag-unanimous-decision","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}