Conor McGregor's Long Road Back: Why He Hasn't Fought Since 2021
When Conor McGregor returns to face Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11, it will have been roughly five years since he last set foot in the Octagon. Five years is an eternity in fighting. Careers start and end in less time than McGregor has spent away. So how did the most famous fighter on earth disappear for half a decade? The answer is a chain of injuries, one cancelled comeback, and a whole lot of life outside the cage.
Here is the full timeline.
The night his leg broke
McGregor's last fight was July 10, 2021, at UFC 264. It was the third fight of his trilogy with Dustin Poirier, and it ended in one of the most gruesome images the sport has produced. In the closing seconds of the first round, McGregor threw a punch, his footwork betrayed him, and his lower leg snapped. He crumpled to the canvas. The doctor waved it off between rounds, handing Poirier a TKO win.
McGregor later admitted he thought his career might be over. He had surgery on the leg, with a rod and screws inserted, and began what would become a very long road back.
He has not won a fight since January 2020
Here is the uncomfortable context that often gets lost in the comeback hype. The leg break was not McGregor's only recent setback. He had also lost the first Poirier rematch in January 2021, knocked out in the second round. His last actual win came all the way back in January 2020, a 40-second demolition of Donald Cerrone.
So McGregor does not just return after a five-year layoff. He returns having won exactly one fight in his last four, with his most recent victory more than six years in the past. That is a big part of why oddsmakers have made him such a heavy underdog.
The comeback that never happened
The leg was supposed to heal in time for a 2024 return. McGregor was booked to headline UFC 303 on June 29, 2024, against Michael Chandler, a fight that had been built up for the better part of a year on a season of The Ultimate Fighter.
It fell apart. McGregor broke a toe in training camp, posted the gory photo to prove it, and the fight was scrapped. The comeback everyone expected evaporated, and the wait stretched on for another two years. For a fighter whose whole brand is built on certainty and showmanship, the repeated injuries have been a quiet, frustrating subplot.
Five years of everything except fighting
McGregor was never idle, he just was not fighting. In the years since the leg break he sold his Proper Twelve whiskey brand in a deal worth hundreds of millions, made his acting debut in the 2024 remake of Road House, and stayed in the headlines for reasons that had nothing to do with the Octagon.
There was also the practical hurdle of drug testing. To return, McGregor had to be back in the anti-doping testing pool for the required window, and the timing of his re-entry shaped when a fight could realistically be booked. Add it all up, the rehab, the cancelled fight, the business and personal detours, the testing requirements, and five years went by.
What he is walking into at UFC 329
This is the comeback, finally. McGregor will be 37 on fight night, turning 38 just three days later. He chose a marquee International Fight Week main event over other options, and the UFC built its biggest weekend around him.
The problem is the opponent. McGregor is not easing back in against a tune-up. He is facing Max Holloway, one of the greatest featherweights in history and a heavy betting favorite. If you want to understand just how good Holloway has become since these two first fought in 2013, we wrote a full piece on how the kid McGregor beat became a legend.
The stakes
A win would be one of the great comeback stories combat sports has ever seen, and it would instantly put a title run or another megafight back on the table. A loss, at this age and after this long away, would make it very hard to argue he is still a top-level fighter, and would likely turn whatever is left of his career into legacy and spectacle fights.
For the full breakdown of the rematch, the card, the odds, the start times, and how to watch, see our complete McGregor vs Holloway 2 guide.
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