Joe Rogan did not need a long replay session to see where Conor McGregor‘s UFC 329 main event went sideways.
McGregor opened against Max Holloway with a jumping roundhouse kick, landed awkwardly on his right leg, and never got his base back. Referee Mike Beltran stopped it 69 seconds into Round 1 after McGregor tried to rise and clearly could not move normally.
Rogan, calling the fight on the UFC broadcast, immediately pointed to the risk in choosing that strike as the first major attack of a comeback fight.
“He just tried a crazy move,” Rogan said. “He tried a crazy move. He tried a jumping roundhouse kick and when you’re in that position when you throw that jumping roundhouse kick, if you don’t land in a good way with the supporting leg, you put so much pressure on that knee.
“The way he landed, he threw the kick, he jumped up, he threw it and he landed with his knee in the worst position.”
The UFC on Paramount+ post below shows the kick and the immediate fallout.
RIGHT ON THE FIRST KICK 😳
Max Holloway gets his hand raised tonight!
[ #UFC329 | LIVE ON @ParamountPlus ] pic.twitter.com/8Y5MR1wJ4s
— UFC on Paramount+ (@UFConParamount) July 12, 2026
Daniel Cormier also broke down why McGregor may have chosen that kick to open the fight.
DC breaks down why he thinks Conor McGregor opened with that kick
[ #UFC329 | LIVE ON @ParamountPlus ] pic.twitter.com/dIk8isPsFb
— UFC on Paramount+ (@UFConParamount) July 12, 2026
McGregor’s Comeback Ends On The First Exchange
The finish added another brutal injury chapter to McGregor’s late-career run. His previous UFC appearance ended with the broken leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in 2021, and this return produced another stoppage where the injury became the story before the fight could really breathe.
MiddleEasy’s Dana White injury update covered the early concern from UFC doctors, while McGregor later said the knee issue came out of nowhere and described the pain in his post-fight statement.
Holloway still gets the official win and the trilogy moment, but Rogan’s read explained why the opening sequence looked so nasty in real time. McGregor did not absorb a long beating. He gambled on an explosive first kick, landed wrong, and the knee folded before the main event had a chance to settle.
