UFC 329, The Morning After: Crumbling Connie Shocks Fossilized Fans
· Yahoo Sports
“If you can’t make it to war, you lose the war. You ain’t about this life.” — Nate Diaz, October 15, 2018
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There’s a certain percentage of fight fan who never moved beyond 2016.
That’s the year Conor McGregor smoked Eddie Alvarez to become simultaneous UFC double champ (never mind that he held up the Featherweight title for ages to do so). It was undoubtedly the height of McGregor’s fighting prowess. He was such a slick striker (ignore the Nate Diaz loss) at the time that McGregor scored himself the life-changing Floyd Mayweather payday, which then kept him out of the Octagon for nearly two years.
This confusion about the current timeline helps explain the insultingly close odds for the UFC 329 main event rematch between Conor McGregor and Max Holloway. A majority of bets placed were wagered on the underdog McGregor by people like Drake, casual fans who fail to understand that 2016 was a decade ago and McGregor hasn’t even won a fight — let alone an important one — since before the pandemic.
Holloway, meanwhile, has been fighting the best in the world for the entirety of McGregor’s five-year yacht retreat. In the time between McGregor’s destroyed leg (the first one) to UFC 329, Holloway won a round off Ilia Topuria, knocked out Justin Gaethje, and defeated “The Diamond” for himself. The 34-year-old Hawaiian may no longer be in his physical prime anymore, but his body remains a sharpened sword, still honed in the fire of elite combat.
McGregor? He was falling apart five years ago. Youthful athletes at their peak do not shatter their bones throwing kicks. Shockingly, cocaine and whiskey are poor preparation for athletic performance, and equally surprising, the 37-year-old body doesn’t hold up to gymnastics as well as a 27-year-old’s knees.
McGregor’s return against Holloway was an act of arrogance. Max “Blessed” Holloway is genuinely a Top Five contender in two separate divisions right now, and McGregor thought he could walk off the couch and take him on? I don’t care what doctor-prescribed performance enhancing drugs were coursing through his system, that’s simple hubris.
Half-broken Michael Chandler would’ve been a much more appropriate challenge.
The jumping kick to open the fight is a microcosm of the whole attitude. McGregor limps into an Octagon that’s probably still damp from the fancy fog machine and decides to literally leap into action? It’s a special kind of delusion and anachronism, and a whole bunch of McGregor fans were sucked along for the ride.
The question moving forward is who will face reality? If you’re in McGregor’s shoes, it’s easy to sell this as an unlucky moment, a mere aberration in his fated return to greatness. In fact, the injury conveniently erased one of the two remaining bouts on McGregor’s UFC contract. If not for the knee implosion, Holloway would have pummeled McGregor’s aura without any asterisk.
Now, there’s only one more fight to freedom (aka Jake Paul) whenever that knee heals up.
How will the fans respond? Right now, much of that certain percentage is outraged, utterly shocked by the reveal that ten years have passed since Conor McGregor was particularly good at fighting. By the time McGregor heals and is ready to fight out that contract, however, a lot of folks will have forgotten what happened at UFC 329. They’ll be back in 2016, ready to see the double champ do whatever the f—k he wants.
Maybe he’ll make it to the two-minute mark.
For complete UFC 329 results and play-by-play click here.