A Conor McGregor fight ending in mere seconds is not new, but the way it ended at UFC 329 was heartbreaking. Five years’ worth of waiting, and months of preparation later, the first kick he threw blew out McGregor’s knee. The injury prompted the referee, Mike Beltran, to wave off the contest just 69 seconds into the fight, handing Max Holloway a TKO victory. In the aftermath, the Irishman has faced heavy criticism, with many declaring that he’s “done.” 

However, amid the backlash, an unexpected voice of sympathy emerged from Islam Makhachev’s coach, Javier Mendez, who has previously shown disdain toward McGregor’s personality.

“You know, to me, to have a warrior like him train as hard as he did after a five-year layoff and come back, only to have something like that happen, your heart has to go out to the guy,” Mendez told Submission Radio’s Denis Shkuratov. “Look, I may not like him as a person at times, but I have to respect what a great warrior he is. To see him go out that way is not the way I would want anyone to go out.

“You’d want them to go out doing what they came out there to do, performing. Either the other man was the better man, or you were the better man, but he beat himself on that one. That’s the part I feel for him about because that’s not something I would want for anybody. He deserved to either become victorious or lose to Max. That’s the way it needed to go.”  

The American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) coach’s admission certainly sounded honest. But Javier Mendez offering positive words for McGregor is still surprising given the history they share. On the infamous night of UFC 229, Mendez cornered Khabib Nurmagomedov as his head coach before the post-fight brawl, and he has since spoken about how the Irishman crossed the line multiple times with his trash talk.  

Though there have been many instances where Mendez expressed disappointment over McGregor bringing religion, nationality, and other personal matters into his trash talk, his criticism was perhaps most notable after the Irishman broke his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. In an interview with Helen Yee in 2021, Mendez said he found McGregor’s trash talk toward Poirier distasteful and added that the former two-division champion wasn’t “the same” after losing to Khabib. 

Makhachev’s coach wasn’t the only one who reacted with empathy. 

Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping labeled UFC 329’s catastrophic ending as “the biggest disappointment in combat sports history.” Even so, ‘The Count’ admitted he “feels” for both McGregor and Holloway, acknowledging that neither fighter wanted the bout to end before they had the chance to put on a show for the fans.

Former two-time 185 lbs champ, Israel Adesanya, showed compassion for ‘The Notorious,’ saying on his YouTube channel that he didn’t want to see the fight “go that way.”  

Immediately after the contest ended, Dana White also reflected on McGregor’s loss and reiterated that, to his knowledge, the Irishman had no pre-existing injury heading into the fight. Still, the UFC CEO admitted he had been hoping for a “one-round” war that never materialized. 

In the end, the disappointment was evident. But Conor McGregor receiving support from several figures could offer him some solace as he navigates yet another difficult setback.