In the wake of Conor McGregor’s abrupt ending to the UFC 329 main event against Max Holloway, questions emerged during the post-bout press conference about whether the UFC had prior knowledge that McGregor may have entered the cage already carrying an injury. Dana White was direct in pushing back against that suggestion.
A reporter raised the question after pointing to footage from before the match, where McGregor appeared to have difficulty putting on his sneakers. The reporter pressed White on whether something may have happened in the 24 hours leading up to the bout, noting they could not identify the injury occurring on the actual landing of the flying kick that ended the fight.
White acknowledged seeing the footage but was firm that nothing in the lead-up to the fight raised any red flags.
“The doctors checked him out before the match and he looked damn good at the press conference and he looked fine at the weigh-ins,” he said.
White then went a step further, pointing to the visibility McGregor had in the days prior as evidence that any significant injury would have been noticed.
“If anybody saw anything that could have possibly made him look weak or injured leading up to this fight, what did the face-off do?” he noted.”44 million in 24 hours? More than 44 million views. Somebody would have saw something.”
White followed that up by underscoring how impossible it would be to conceal such information. “Anybody see something? No. If they did, they didn’t say it, which is impossible. Nobody would do that,” he stated.
As for what McGregor actually sustained in the match, White, while stressing he is not a doctor, said his instinct after watching the injury unfold was a torn ACL.
“We’re assuming blown ACL. I’m no doctor, but that’s what I figured when I saw it. And doctors think the same thing, too,” White said.
McGregor left the arena before White took questions, and White confirmed he had not yet spoken with him directly. A formal diagnosis would require an MRI.
White also addressed the conversation around McGregor’s future, noting that a five-year layoff heading into a high-level matchup is never straightforward. He stopped well short of making any predictions or matchmaking decisions, citing how much was still unknown in the hours following the event.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions right now that will play out over the next several days,” he said, adding that his office would regroup on Tuesday to start working through what comes next.
For now, the UFC is waiting on medical clarity before any further decisions are made regarding McGregor’s career path.
