What a disaster.

After a five-year absence from the Octagon, Conor ‘The Notorious’ McGregor injured his right knee in the opening seconds of his return for Saturday’s UFC 329 headliner vs. former featherweight champion Max Holloway.

McGregor darted toward Holloway with a jumping switch kick to start the fight, but he landed awkwardly and briefly went down. McGregor quickly jumped back up and threw a left head kick, only to fall again when his right leg gave out on him.

Holloway quickly followed him down and landed a number of ground strikes. McGregor tried to defend with several upkicks that missed, as Holloway responded by connecting with several more ground strikes before McGregor popped back up.

McGregor was initially moving gingerly after he got back to his feet. When he exploded to throw a left hand, his right leg gave out again and he went down to the canvas.

Once again, Holloway landed a series of strikes to his downed opponent. The Hawaiian appeared hesitant to attack, looking at referee Mike Beltran to see if he was going to intervene. Beltran told Holloway to keep fighting, so he landed several more strikes.

At that point, Holloway looked at Beltran again, then signaled for McGregor to stand up. When McGregor returned to his feet, he was about to engage again but couldn’t put pressure on his right leg. Therefore, Beltran waved the fight off.

McGregor limped back to his corner with dejected body language.

Holloway won by first-round TKO (1:01) as a -290 favorite. He cashed prop bets to win inside the distance (-163), win by TKO/KO (-135) and to win in Round 1 (+550). Wagers on ‘under’ 1.5 rounds cashed for a +175 payout at BetRivers.

McGregor published the following statement to his X account (formerly Twitter): “My head gasket is gone. Destroyed. I had no injury / injuries going into the fight. I was throwing kicks, planted and jumping, all throughout camp as well as backstage before the fight. This came out of nowhere. I am beyond dark here. I can only describe it as hell.”

Several hours later, McGregor made another post to his X account: “I was so sharp and so ready for this fight I cannot believe what has happened. The talk of me being off while walking in to the fight is nonsense. I was calm, ready, and confident. I am in shock what has taken place. The devil is literally staring at me right in front of my face here. I am not engaging. I will be at church tomorrow. I will overcome this. I will not be deterred. I will return.” 

As of 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, McGregor’s team hadn’t released any sort of diagnosis of his injury. However, most believe he sustained a torn ACL in his right knee.

That’s a 9-12 month recovery time for McGregor, who will turn 38 years of age on Tuesday.