re: UFC 329: McGregor vs Holloway, Paramount+ (7/11/26, 4PM CT)

Yep shite happens all the time where an athlete will make a simple move and it’s just their time and they end up down. Plenty of football players have blown knees on a simple cut out of nowhere, it happened to John Emmery and happened to Richard Murphy.

This time you have a 38 year old fighter that hadn’t fought in 5 years, older injuries to other leg, and he clearly doesn’t stay in fight shape and hasn’t for at least like 7 years.

He came out with the plan to try to hit the show boat crowd stunning move and he was too amped, got up higher than he probably wanted and then landed on his plant leg and it gave out.

Could have had a toe injury perhaps and that would make it even worse to land on the knee if you had hurt a toe before.

If he had a toe or other leg issue besides the knee, no way he could stand and bang with Max for multiple rounds so I can see trying to come out hot and catch him with a nasty kick and then jump on him.

I don’t think his knee was hurt prior when you watch the warm ups he was doing.

I really don’t know who gets the next TS. But fun matchups would be

Arman vs Ilia (just get it over with)
Olivera vs Paddy
Holloway vs Ruffy

Regardless of what really happened, the whole thing is depressing. The mohawk because young Conor was crazy like that, but you have to shave it a certain way now because he's getting older and his hair is thinning. The big beard maybe to cover up how everyone noticed that his face looked way different a few years ago, plastic surgery or who knows what.

But finally under the brightest lights, nothing could be covered up. McGregor looked worn and haggard like a man who has been doing some extremely hard living since that legendary run of his youth. Not even a hint of the old confidence and swagger, crazy wild man with Irish eyes smiling, not here just to take part, here to take over. You can still walk the billi walk, but nothing can turn back time.

Conor wasted the last bit of his youth on hard drugs and whores, traded his God-given gifts for a life of drunken debauchery. For f*** sake. Gained the world and lost his soul, but there's nothing that matches being in the zone at the top of your game, the inner silence, the flow, the closest most people ever get to something higher. It's beating Chad Mendes with seconds to spare, looking back over your shoulder at your handy work, giving a laugh and celebrating with the boys, everything that comes is right, only better days ahead, and the crowd goes wild. It's being the man.

Singing Wonderwall, sad as hell in hindsight. 'I said maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me.' But you can't go home again, can't step in the same river twice, not the same river, not the same man.

Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland.

Conor McGregor's time is long past. At its worst, the UFC reminds us of the brutal reality of life, how we're all getting a little bit older, a little bit slower. How there's no going back, how you'll never be young again. And how someday the time will come for all of us to set out on our journey westward.

A modern Shakespeare apparently

Post-fight press conference:



Nuggets:

-highest gate in history at $26.4 mil

-Performance bonuses: FOTN - Royval/Kavanaugh, Performance - Paddy and King

-No foreknowledge of Conor being hurt--40 mil people saw him run up on Max at the weigh-ins and no one said anything--checked by a doctor before the fight--Conor is 5 years removed from fighting

-No word yet from Conor regarding injury--assumed by UFC medical to be a torn ACL

-Too early to say about a trilogy fight

-Paddy is a huge star in the making--gained 2 million new followers after his loss to Gaethje

-Krylov's jaw was not broken

Armans problem is he acts the arse and he pulled out of a title fight the day before. By acting the arse I mean getting into fights with fans and headbutting hooker at the face off putting that fight in jeopardy

I hope Gable doesn't end up like Cain. Seems like he's had a lot of issues already with injuries and he's only 26. But at least he's not training at AKA.

Yeah, you're probably right I don't know, man, I found that s*** so sad. Like we're all hoping he can bring back some of the old magic, and he's trying as hard as he can. And then first thing he does, injures himself trying to do what he used to be able to do. It's like the movie The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke.

Or like when Jake Paul fought Mike Tyson, and Jake had to go easy on him because it was clear right away that this was wrong, or like elder abuse.

What they were vs. what they are now type thing.