Longtime **** yst Chael Sonnen sees two sides to the Conor McGregor story after a devastating octagon return at UFC 329.
After five years away from competition, McGregor (22-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) returned to rematch Max Holloway (28-9 MMA, 24-9 UFC) in Saturday's headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The start of the fight was essentially the conclusion, because "The Notorious" came out with a jumping kick that ended in an awkward fall, and immediately it was clear it was going to end badly.
After a few more sequences where McGregor struggled to stay on his feet or throw any strikes with balance, referee Mike Beltran obliged to Holloway's encouragement to wave it off. The end came just 69 seconds after it began, and the lack of finality, given the pre-fight hype, was clear from everyone in the arena and watching at home.
"It was one of these things where there was nothing to take away from it," Sonnen told MMA Junkie on Sunday. "There was no redeemable quality. I would never kick a man when he's down. I would always help him up. I feel Conor can handle this: Conor knew. And in many ways, it was a very courageous thing. You've got all these Conor haters out there like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe this happened. Call him McFraud.' Maybe we didn't know that was what you were dealing with, but you did and you sucked it up and you made that walk anyway. There is another side of this. But ultimately the story is: We can't do this work anymore.
"It was too big of an ask. Was there a pre-injury? Yeah. We saw that. I was convinced that Conor was there mentally in the right place. … I think Conor mentally was in the right spot, but the contest is physical. We're remembering those kicks and everything else. There was one other moment, and it was the bad one for me where I go, 'We can't do this work anymore.' It was actually a punch. Conor threw a punch and he went down. He fell forward like a drunk guy. All the way to his knee. He hadn't thrown punches at full speed in so long, he lost his own balance doing it. No part of me is teasing. That was the real moment."
After five years away from competition, McGregor (22-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) returned to rematch Max Holloway (28-9 MMA, 24-9 UFC) in Saturday's headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The start of the fight was essentially the conclusion, because "The Notorious" came out with a jumping kick that ended in an awkward fall, and immediately it was clear it was going to end badly.
After a few more sequences where McGregor struggled to stay on his feet or throw any strikes with balance, referee Mike Beltran obliged to Holloway's encouragement to wave it off. The end came just 69 seconds after it began, and the lack of finality, given the pre-fight hype, was clear from everyone in the arena and watching at home.
"It was one of these things where there was nothing to take away from it," Sonnen told MMA Junkie on Sunday. "There was no redeemable quality. I would never kick a man when he's down. I would always help him up. I feel Conor can handle this: Conor knew. And in many ways, it was a very courageous thing. You've got all these Conor haters out there like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe this happened. Call him McFraud.' Maybe we didn't know that was what you were dealing with, but you did and you sucked it up and you made that walk anyway. There is another side of this. But ultimately the story is: We can't do this work anymore.
"It was too big of an ask. Was there a pre-injury? Yeah. We saw that. I was convinced that Conor was there mentally in the right place. … I think Conor mentally was in the right spot, but the contest is physical. We're remembering those kicks and everything else. There was one other moment, and it was the bad one for me where I go, 'We can't do this work anymore.' It was actually a punch. Conor threw a punch and he went down. He fell forward like a drunk guy. All the way to his knee. He hadn't thrown punches at full speed in so long, he lost his own balance doing it. No part of me is teasing. That was the real moment."
15 days ago
