Las Vegas – UFC CEO and President Dana White is of the belief that Conor McGregor blew out his ACL at UFC 329.
“Listen, everybody who knows anything about the fight business, and it’s been a big topic of conversation leading up to this fight, five years off, it’s rough,” White noted during the event’s post-fight press conference on Saturday, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.
White was expecting “at least a one round war, or who knows what Conor was capable of as far as cardio or whatever else after a five-year layoff, but there you go. 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.”
It was unclear while White was speaking whether McGregor would appear before the media. Rumors were that, after injuring his right leg off a kick early in his fight with Max Holloway, he’d left the arena. It was a rough ending to a comeback five years in the making. Heartbreaking for the Irish star no doubt.
Whether the UFC is willing to book a third fight between McGregor and Holloway is unclear. “I don’t even know. I don’t know. You’ve got to take some time. I don’t know if you know this or not, but I don’t like to talk about making fights the night of the fight,” White said on that front. “Definitely not in this scenario.”
There’s been some question that McGregor might have gone into the fight injured. One video clip aired on the UFC 329 broadcast showed him stumbling while taking off his shoes ahead of the fight.
“I have no idea. That I don’t know,” said White, of the notion of a pre-fight injury. White recalled that McGregor had no issues at the press conference on Thursday. As for anything happening after that, “I wouldn’t know that, but I didn’t see anything. The doctor’s checked him out before the fight, and he looked damn good at the press conference and he looked fine at the weigh-ins.”
White has been known to encourage fighters to retire when they begin to decline, and it seems that might be the case with Conor McGregor. Thought as White noted, he tends to base that on the athletes themselves broaching the subject.
“I do feel that way, but it’s the guys that start saying ‘ahh I’ve been thinking about retiring.’ The minute you start talking or thinking about retiring – you absolutely positively should. I haven’t heard that from him yet, but he hasn’t spoke publicly yet. We’ll see what he has to say.”
Watch the full UFC 329 post-fight press conference with Dana White above.
