McGregor vs Holloway LIVE: Updates as Conor McGregor suffers major injury blow on UFC return

Here is more from Max Holloway’s post-fight interview inside the octagon with Joe Rogan...

“Let's give it up for Conor, what an absolute animal,” he said.

“You guys are lucky because there is going to be a Holloway v McGregor three now. Let's get that money.

“It is what it is. I'll sit down with the UFC. There was so much hype for that. We have to run it back one more time. We need one more.

"I was looking forward to this. I was working hard to get to 170 [lbs] and fight this guy. For it to end like this, it sucks."

As he said, there didn’t look to be any pre-fight issues for Conor McGregor here...

Conor McGregor has now spoken for the first time since tonight’s injury via a post on X, in which he says he is “beyond dark” and “in hell” after another major setback that calls his UFC future into serious question.

He also categorically denies any suggestion that he was already injured going into the fight.

“My head gasket is gone,” McGregor writes. “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.”

Another video gaining plenty of traction on social media was also shown by the TV broadcast team earlier on.

It shows Conor McGregor looking unsteady as he slips while kicking off his shoes before the fight.

It is being used to speculate that he may have already been carrying an injury coming into the bout.

I can’t see anything in it, though - it looks like he just loses his balance because his right foot briefly gets stuck in the shoe.

If McGregor was already protecting an injury, then flying into that sort of acrobatic kick in the first few seconds just makes no sense at all.

You can quite clearly see the moment where he hurts the knee during that awkward landing.

Just freak stuff unfortunately again for McGregor, five years on from that horrendous leg break against Dustin Poirier - also in the first round.

On that occasion, he broke the tibia and fibula in his left leg.

Hardly a surprise, as it’s certainly what it looked like at the time, but UFC chief Dana White has confirmed in his post-event press conference that he believes Conor McGregor has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in his right knee.

“I was expecting at least a one-round war,” White told reporters at T-Mobile Arena.

“Who knew what Conor was capable of as far as cardio or whatever else after a five-year lay-off. We’re assuming [it is a] blown ACL.

“I’m no doctor, but that’s what I figured when I saw it and doctors think the same thing too.”

There is footage now doing the rounds on social media of McGregor looking very emotional indeed as he left the arena.

Conor McGregor limped out and away from the octagon as Max Holloway conducted his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

A disappointed Holloway praised McGregor as an “animal” and gets the crowd to give him a round of applause for his efforts.

He also insists that a third fight between the pair will now happen.

Replays show McGregor clearly appeared to hurt his right knee straightaway there while coming flying out of the blocks and trying to land an acrobatic left kick, landing badly on that right leg.

He looks absolutely devastated, understandably.

Holloway knew he was hurt and didn’t want to inflict any unnecessary damage, telling the referee.

Holloway goes to console McGregor as he sits slumped on his stool, no doubt raising the prospect of a third fight between them.

Holloway is the winner by TKO, but it’s not the way he would have wanted it.

This is after McGregor’s last fight five years ago ended with a horrific leg break in the first round.

You have to wonder if that’s the last we’ve seen of him in the octagon.

Oh dear.

McGregor slips once again and it quickly becomes very clear that he’s injured.

He won’t be able to continue as the fight is waved off after only 69 seconds of round one.

What an anti-climax.

HERE WE GO!

McGregor is on his back early after slipping while trying to throw out some early kicks...

Here he is!

Traditional Celtic music gives way to ‘Hypnotise’ by The Notorious B.I.G. and McGregor strolls to the octagon, with that new mohawk and very styled beard.

Once inside, he delivers his signature ‘billionaire strut’.

The T-Mobile Arena crowd are loving seeing all of this again from the biggest star in MMA and UFC history.

We will be underway after the final introductions from Bruce Buffer.