Conor McGregor suffers early knee injury in return, loses to Max Holloway at UFC 329

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Conor McGregor’s return against Max Holloway at UFC 329 ended unceremoniously at just 1:09 of the first round Saturday night because of a knee injury.

Fighting for the first time in more than five years, McGregor flew across the ring with a flying left roundhouse kick when the match started and landed awkwardly on his right knee.

After attempting to kick and strike Holloway (28-9-0) two more times, it was clear McGregor (22-7-0) couldn’t finish the scheduled five-round welterweight bout.

“Five years off in this sport is rough,” UFC president Dana White said. “We’re assuming a blown ACL. That’s what I assumed when I saw it, and that’s what the doctors think, too.”

Asked if there may have been an existing injury, White said there were no signs of it at Friday’s ceremonial weigh-in. White added that with the millions of social-media views of McGregor rushing Holloway at the weigh-in, someone would have noticed if anyone was injured.

Holloway said he kept telling referee Mike Beltran to stop the fight because it was apparent McGregor was injured, but the former champion kept saying, “Fight!”

“During the fight, you could see his demeanor change,” Holloway said. “When I saw him hurt, I said, ‘Call this, he’s hurt.'

“I just hope for a speedy recovery.”

Holloway closed a -300 favorite at Bet MGM Sportsbook, which means a bettor would have to lay $300 to win $100. McGregor was a +240 underdog, which means a bettor would win $240 with a $100 wager on the Irishman.

McGregor, who strolled to the ring to the sounds of Notorious Biggie Smalls’ “Hypnotize” and the roar of the sold-out crowd, last fought exactly five years and a day before Saturday night.

The fans were also treated to Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham serving as a guest ring girl before the first round of the main event. White said it was decided eight minutes before she strolled around the cage in a black top and sequenced shorts, stopping occasionally to replicate her highly popular finger point from the recent game against the Phoenix Mercury.

To the delight of a frenzied audience just hours after his home country of England won its quarterfinal match over Norway in the World Cup, Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett (24-4-0) made quick work of Benoit Saint Denis (17-4-0) with a first-round TKO. Pimblett, who closed a +120 underdog, blocked a roundhouse kick, shot in and quickly applied a D’Arce Choke to put Saint Denis to sleep for the win in 52 seconds.

“Light work,” Pimblett said with a smile at the post-fight press conference. “Mother (expletive) got slept.”

In a bantamweight battle, Mario Bautista (18-3-0) defeated Cory Sandhagen (18-7-0) by unanimous decision, after taking advantage of a first-round leg kick and applying pressure in each round after. A flurry of punches in the third round secured the decision.

In a scheduled three-round flyweight bout, Brandon Royval (18-9-0) applied a rear-naked choke on Lone’er Kavanagh (10-2-0) to win by submission at the 3:40 mark of the final round.

In an absolute shocker to start the main card, a bloodied King Green (36-17-0) overcame a beating for nearly the entire first round before landing a right hand to the jaw of Terrance McKinney (18-9-0) with roughly 20 seconds left, and then finished him off for a TKO at the 4:59 mark.

AP MMA: https://apnews.com/hub/mixed-martial-arts

Conor McGregor, right, jumps into the air for a kick as he fights Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at the UFC 329 mixed martial arts event Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Conor McGregor reacts after he lost to Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at the UFC 329 mixed martial arts event Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Conor McGregor reacts after losing to Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at the UFC 329 mixed martial arts event Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Conor McGregor reacts after losing to Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at the UFC 329 mixed martial arts event Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Conor McGregor, right, embraces Max Holloway after McGregor lost in a welterweight fight at the UFC 329 mixed martial arts event Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Conor McGregor reacts after losing to Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at the UFC 329 mixed martial arts event Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Conor McGregor, right, jumps into the air for a kick as he fights Max Holloway in a welterweight fight at the UFC 329 mixed martial arts event Saturday, July 11, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States attacked Iran early Sunday morning over an Iranian strike on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz that set the container ship ablaze and forced its crew to abandon it. Iran apparently responded with attacks targeting Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The strait has become the key sticking point in any further negotiations between Iran and the United States to find a permanent end to the war that began back on Feb. 28. About a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed through the strait before the war began. Iran’s grip on it during the war led to a global energy crisis, though oil prices have sharply dropped since wartime highs of $120 a barrel.

The U.S. military's Central Command said it hit some 140 targets in the strikes, far more than the last two rounds, and went after missile and drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communication equipment and other sites.

The attacks “degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait," it said.

The new crossfire in the Persian Gulf comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested an interim deal in the Iran war was “over.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote online: “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay.”

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament and a main negotiator, responded.

“The era of one-sided deals is OVER,” he wrote on X. “We told you: keep your word or pay the price. Reality is knocking.”

The United Arab Emirates warned the public Sunday of an incoming missile and drone attack as explosions could be heard in nearby Qatar. A missile alert sounded in Qatar shortly after the blasts. Qatar's military said in a statement it intercepted the incoming Iranian fire.

Meanwhile, missile alerts sounded in Bahrain, an island kingdom in the Persian Gulf home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. Kuwait's military said it was intercepting incoming fire.

It wasn’t immediately clear what locations were under attack in the UAE, which so far hadn’t been targeted in the latest round of attacks by Iran. The latest attack on the Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, came in May when a drone sparked a fire on the edge of the country's sole nuclear power plant.

Iran also made a series of claims about attacks elsewhere that were not immediately confirmed.

In the Strait of Hormuz attack, a Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered “significant engineroom damage” and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, overseen by the British military, said the ship had been traveling in a route hugging the shoreline of Oman. That's been the way ships have gotten in and out of the Persian Gulf while avoiding Iranian territorial waters. The ship's crew abandoned the vessel as it was ablaze, the center said.

Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said multiple vessels “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route.” One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop.”

Iran said that the strait would remain closed “until further notice” and said it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more attacks.

Iranian state media reported U.S. strikes across a swath of southern provinces, including Bushehr, Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces. It offered no immediate damage or casualty figures from the strikes.

The latest violence followed Iran and Oman’s foreign ministers meeting on Saturday to discuss the strait, after days of Iranian attacks on ships and U.S. retaliation that dealt a blow to the interim deal to end the war. The narrow strait sits in both Iran and Oman's territorial waters, but long has been considered an international waterway.

Oman said it and Iran agreed to keep talking about the Strait of Hormuz “at the technical and political levels.” However, Iran offered no statement about the strait being open to all — something sought by the Trump administration.

Iran’s new supreme leader, still unseen since the war began, also vowed in his first statement since the funeral of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that Iranians would avenge his killing in the war’s opening strikes on Feb. 28.

Such revenge “is the will of our nation and must certainly be carried out,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement carried on state televisions.

U.S. officials, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity about the current situation with Iran, said the resumption of strikes even before the latest round came as a result of what they described as a rogue faction of Iranian hard-liners who were trying to sabotage the ceasefire.

Iran has insisted its theocracy is unified under the new supreme leader.

After the U.S. wrapped up strikes on Thursday, more attacks reportedly hit Iran, raising questions about who else may be targeting the Islamic Republic.

Israel didn’t claim them, meaning the Gulf Arab states may have launched them, likely as a means to deter Iran from attacking them again. Iran on Thursday retaliated for U.S. strikes by targeting Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar.

The strikes in Iran over two rounds of strikes last week killed at least 17 people and wounded 115 others, Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said.

Weissert reported from Washington.

A pro-government demonstrator wears an Iranian flag as she waves a religious flag in a gathering commemorating the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a square in Tehran, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A man holds a poster of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a gathering commemorating him at a square in Tehran, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A pro-government demonstrator wears an Iranian flag as she holds a religious flag in a gathering commemorating the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a square in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Pro-government demonstrators wave Iranian and religious flags in a gathering commemorating the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a square in Tehran, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A pro-government demonstrator waves an Iranian flag in a gathering commemorating the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at a square in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)