When Conor McGregor suffered a disastrous right knee injury just moments into his 69-second TKO loss to Max Holloway in their rematch last Saturday at UFC 329, the fallout created quite a polarizing mix of reactions from current and former fighters.
Some questioned the 38-year-old McGregor’s heart in his first fight following a five-year layoff or his strategic decision to begin the fight with an ambitious running kick attempt. But one fighter who has empathy for what “The Notorious” is dealing with is Kamaru Usman, the former UFC welterweight king.
Usman (21-4) returns from a 13-month layoff on Saturday, in just his second fight in the last 33 months, when he headlines a UFC Fight Night card in Oklahoma City against former middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis (23-3) in a five-round bout slated for 185 pounds.
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If there’s someone who understands the mental and physical challenges that come with dealing with injuries, it’s the 39-year-old Usman, who has endured a torn hand ligament in 2022, double hernia surgery in 2019 and chronic knee issues dating back to microfracture surgery before his 2015 UFC debut.
“I saw a lot of the backlash online and kind of how people were going at him,” Usman told CBS Sports on Tuesday. “It’s a tough thing to do and I remember watching at home and going, ‘This could either go really well or really bad. There is no in between.’ I could kind of feel Conor’s spirit as he was warming up backstage. And then he comes out and that happens.
“It’s about the worst that could’ve happened. So, I definitely felt for him because it’s a dark place to be.”
Usman, a native of Nigeria who went on to become an NCAA Division II national champion in wrestling at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, won his first 15 UFC bouts between 2015 and 2021, one shy of the promotional record for consecutive wins.
Even though Usman made five defenses of the 170-pound title during that span, his career took a significant turn in 2022 when a fifth-round knockout loss to Leon Edwards in their rematch kicked off a three-fight losing streak. Going through that — and bouncing back in June 2025 with a unanimous decision win over welterweight contender Joaquin Buckley in his last fight — has given Usman the proper perspective to what McGregor is feeling.
“No one, unless you are a fighter of [McGregor’s] caliber or that magnitude, unless you have been in a situation like that, it’s very, very difficult to truly understand what he’s going through and what he’s about to go through in these dark days,” Usman stated. “I don’t think that is what he wanted. I think he wanted to come out and try to put on a show.”
Even though he believes McGregor has yet to go through the darkest and most challenging aspects of his recovery journey, Usman has confidence that his fellow former champion — who released a statement Monday on social media saying he will seek surgery and rehab — can one day complete his intended comeback.
“At the end of the day, what does a guy like Conor have anymore?” Usman stated. “It’s the glory of being able to be a combatant. It’s getting to go out there and be a warrior and be recognized as that. Unfortunately, he didn’t get that. That’s why it’s going to be dark until he’s eventually able to build his mind and his body back up to potentially step back in there. So, I feel for him big time. I didn’t really get all the hate that was going into it.”
