John Kavanagh: Conor McGregor had "zero injury" before UFC 329
“For the conspiracy theorists out there, he walked in with no injury. Zero injury. There was absolutely no injury,”
John Kavanagh has shut down the idea that Conor McGregor walked into UFC 329 already hurt. Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show, McGregor's longtime head coach said his fighter entered the Max Holloway fight with no injury at all — and that the knee gave out on the very first technique of the fight.
"For the conspiracy theorists out there, he walked in with no injury. Zero injury. There was absolutely no injury," Kavanagh said.
"I can guarantee you that he was 100% going in. In fact, probably more healthy going into this one than the last few," he added.
That is the point Kavanagh returned to again and again: this was not, in his account, a fighter masking a problem. It was a freak accident, on a move McGregor had done to death.
The opening kick
McGregor threw a jumping switch kick in the opening exchange, landed awkwardly on his right leg, and collapsed to the canvas. He tried to stand but could not put weight on the knee, and referee Mike Beltran waved off the bout.
Kavanagh said the kick was not improvisation. It was a staple McGregor had used to open fights for years, including his 40-second finish of Donald Cerrone in 2020, and one he had executed multiple times in the camp leading up to the Holloway fight.
"If I hadn't seen it done, like I don't want to exaggerate, but at least 50 times in the months leading up to it, at least 50 different sparring sessions and done every time he started pad sessions— like it was just something he had just done to death," he explained.
Kavanagh was still in the corner, setting down the bucket, when he looked up and saw McGregor already falling.
"I didn't know what had happened. I wasn't sure it was a slip or what had gone on, but it was obvious when he stood up that there was something had gone terribly wrong," Kavanagh recalled.
McGregor later confirmed the diagnosis: a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee, the opposite leg from the ACL tear he suffered in his first fight with Holloway in 2013.
The road back — 2027 as a realistic target, not a date
McGregor has undergone surgery and, according to Kavanagh, has attacked his rehabilitation with intent. He is "moving around quite well," Kavanagh said, and has even returned to sparring, recovering faster than expected.
That does not mean a return is imminent. Kavanagh estimated it will be next year until McGregor can start returning to MMA-type training, making a comeback in 2027 the realistic target. No return date, event, or opponent is announced in the interview as reported, and this article claims none.
McGregor has one fight remaining on his UFC contract, and has publicly stated his intention to return for it. Kavanagh was careful not to guarantee a full comeback campaign, but he left little doubt about McGregor's mindset.
"I just don't know if he's done with competition just yet," Kavanagh said.
After 22 years together, Kavanagh said, he has learned not to doubt McGregor when he says he will do something. Whether another comeback follows is still an open question. What Kavanagh is certain about is the starting point: in his account, there was no injury going in, and the injury that ended UFC 329 happened on the opening kick.
