McGregor's comeback lasted about three seconds before a jumping kick wrecked his knee

[NightOwl]

Conor McGregor's long awaited return to the octagon after five years away ended almost as soon as it began. Fighting Max Holloway in a rematch 13 years in the making at UFC 329 in Las Vegas, McGregor threw a jumping kick to start the welterweight main event and immediately suffered a knee injury, bringing the fight to an anticlimactic, near instant stop

McGregor had returned with relatively little fanfare compared to his usual buildup, last competing five years earlier when he lost to Dustin Poirier and shattered his shin in the process. In the years since he's been embroiled in serious controversy, including being found liable for rape in an Irish civil court, making this comeback fight carry weight well beyond the usual pre fight hype for a superstar returning to the sport

In the immediate aftermath, McGregor posted to social media expressing genuine disbelief at what had happened, saying he felt sharp and fully ready heading into the fight and dismissing suggestions he'd looked off walking to the octagon as nonsense, adding that he was calm, ready and confident before the injury occurred out of nowhere

The abrupt ending overshadowed what had otherwise been a strong night of action on the card, with seven of the preliminary bouts finishing inside the distance and the rest of the main card delivering entertaining fights right up until the headline bout's sudden stoppage. For a comeback this heavily anticipated after such a long layoff and such a turbulent few years away from the sport, ending in a freak injury during the opening seconds is about as unsatisfying a result as it could have produced for everyone involved

Ufc 329 Live Results Highlights 201500918sports.yahoo.com

[HitmanMatt53]

Five years away, this much personal controversy in the interim, and then the fight itself lasts about three seconds, genuinely hard to write a more anticlimactic outcome than that

[NeverQuitZach33]

The jumping kick specifically being the move that hurt him is a rough bit of irony, that's exactly the kind of high risk, high reward move that defined his highlight reel years ago

[Python35]

His comment about the devil staring him in the face captures the disbelief pretty vividly, that's a wild way to describe watching your own comeback collapse instantly