Matt Brown doesn’t think Conor McGregor was secretly injured heading into UFC 329. He thinks McGregor was nervous.
McGregor blew out his knee on the first kick he threw against Max Holloway, and the abrupt ending fueled speculation that he was already compromised. Speaking on The Fighter vs. The Writer, the retired welterweight offered a different read on what happened.
The reason that happened, I think Conor was nervous. I thought Max said it perfect, I think he was weak in the knees. He was nervous. I don’t think he looked 100 percent himself.
Brown argued that years on the shelf and a lack of recent wins had quietly eaten into McGregor’s famous confidence, even if he never let it show.
He’s Conor McGregor, one of the best showmen in history, he’s not going to go in looking —- nervous. That would be stupid of him, too.
To Brown, the bigger mistake was the matchup itself. He believes McGregor needed a tune-up before facing a top-five talent like Holloway coming off a five-year layoff.
This is exactly why boxers do warmup fights, tune up fights. This is exactly why you work yourself up the rankings. This is why you don’t go fight Max Holloway after five years.
Before his five-year layoff, McGregor’s last two outings were both losses to Dustin Poirier, a second-round knockout at UFC 257 in January 2021 and the broken-leg stoppage in their UFC 264 rematch that July.
