Conor McGregor is out of the operating room and already talking like a man on schedule. The former two-division UFC champion underwent the fifth surgery of his career on Monday to repair the torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee, and he wasted no time telling his followers how it went.
“Surgery went excellent! I am confident,” McGregor wrote on his Instagram story.
The procedure repairs the damage he suffered 69 seconds into his welterweight rematch with Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11. McGregor opened the fight with a jumping roundhouse kick, landed awkwardly on his right leg, and went down twice more before referee Mike Beltran waved it off at the 1:09 mark of round one, handing Holloway a TKO win.
He announced the operation himself earlier that day, filming a video on the way in while holding a Louis Vuitton bag and grabbing a can of his own energy drink. “What’s up folks, it’s the Mac,” he said. “Off to get surgery today. So wish me well.” The caption read: “Well folks, here we go again! Surgery number 5 of my career coming up! All things considered that is an ok number!”
Dana White’s timeline has not moved
Roughly three weeks passed between the injury and the operation, a gap that drew attention because McGregor spent it posting videos of himself walking unaided and working a leg extension machine. Asked about that footage at a Zuffa Boxing press conference at Madison Square Garden on July 27, Dana White gave a blunt assessment of the recovery.
“I have no idea,” White said. “We had him on FaceTime tonight, ringside, but you know, Conor McGregor’s out for a year.”
That estimate is less of a contradiction than it first appears. A year from White’s comments lands squarely on International Fight Week 2027, expected in Las Vegas next July, which is the exact window McGregor called for when he posted, “What was to be a generational beating is now to be reset. IFW 2027. The Last Dance.” McGregor has pointed out that his 2013 ACL tear, suffered in the first Holloway fight on the opposite leg, kept him out roughly nine months.
One fight left on the contract
The “Last Dance” framing refers to the final bout of McGregor’s exclusive UFC deal, not necessarily his retirement. He has not ruled out re-signing, but fighting out the contract would leave him free to test the open market for the first time in his career. Holloway, meanwhile, has said he would welcome a trilogy and is willing to wait into 2027 for it.
McGregor’s next public appearance is already booked. BKFC president David Feldman told Bloody Elbow that McGregor will be in Manchester for Darren Till’s bare-knuckle bout with Yoel Romero at BKFC 94 on September 26, surgery or not. “He loves it,” Feldman said of the matchup.
