Colby Covington isn't going to pile on Conor McGregor following the devastating end to UFC 329.

McGregor returned after a five-year hiatus following a gruesome leg break suffered against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. When his rematch with Max Holloway began this past Saturday, McGregor threw a wild kick that appeared to lead to a nasty knee injury — one that eventually led to the end of the bout and a TKO win for Holloway.

Covington, who faces Arman Tsarukyan in the main event of RAF 11 this Saturday in Milwaukee, says people were feeling the energy again for the McGregor return.

“McGregor, you know, he's the biggest star the sport's ever seen,†Covington told MMA Fighting “He sold a lot of tickets. I think it was the highest gate the UFC has ever seen, so he boosted the economy for the UFC and for Vegas. So good on him for doing that. The excitement, the electricity that he brings to a UFC arena, that can't be understated.â€

The former two-division champion has promised to return after surgery, although the extent of the injury has not been made official just yet.

Fighters have all given takes on the situation — with some feeling bad for McGregor, and others not so nice about it. One person, in particular, that caught Covington's attention ripping McGregor after the injury and loss was three-time McGregor opponent Dustin Poirier, who called McGregor a “dirtbag†on the Deep Waters podcast.

Covington says he's not going to add to the negativity, and he called out Poirier for not doing the same — especially with what happened in June with Poirier's Father's Day arrest for public drunkenness.

“McGregor is still a first ballot Hall of Famer and the biggest star the sport's ever seen, so I'm not gonna kick him while he's down, I'm not going to be like that fraud Dustin soy boy, Louisiana swamp trash Poirier,†Covington said. “I'm not going to kick him while he's down, especially a guy that made Dustin's career. He was giving Dustin great advice. He said, ‘Bro, get this in control, otherwise, your life's going to spiral out of control.

“You see Dustin, he's cussing at a cop, calling the little desk ladies that are just sitting there and minding their own business, doing their job, calling them hoes multiple times. It's disgusting. Dustin Poirier is the biggest fake nice guy I've ever seen in my life, and I've been telling people for years. I've been saying Dustin's a fake nice guy. He plays a nice guy on camera, but off camera, he's a piece of shit person. He's a deadbeat father, and how ironic we're on Father's Day and he was out there cussing out cops and calling girls hoes.

“Now that I think of it, Conor's loss is because of Dustin's dad's fault. Everything that Dustin was saying was his dad's fault. He wasn't taking any blame, no accountability. [He] said all this is because of my dad, ‘Oh my dad this,' taking no accountability for his own actions, just blaming it all on his dad.â€

Despite the setback for McGregor, Covington not only believes McGregor will fight again, but he needs to fight again.

“Yeah, I do think Conor fights again,†Covington explained. “He still has that fire and he still wants to compete. He has his last fight on his UFC contract, so I'm sure he wants to fulfill that and then see what the future holds for himself.

“But, Conor, he needs fighting. He really does to keep structure in his life, to keep everything sane in his mind. Fighting's good for Conor, so he needs that structure.â€

Conor McGregor does want his loss to Max Holloway to stand.

This past weekend, in the main event of UFC 329, McGregor made his long-awaited return to the octagon after a five-year layoff; it was a total disaster.

McGregor immediately injured his knee when he threw a jumping switch kick and landed awkwardly, ending any hope of a competitive fight. McGregor tried to fight through it, but after his knee gave out on him a couple of times, the bout was stopped, resulting in a TKO win for Max Holloway in just over a minute of action.

Now, McGregor has another loss on his record and is likely looking at another prolonged layoff as he recovers from the yet-to-be-determined knee injury. But he hopes at least one of those things might be fixable.

On Wednesday, McGregor posted to his social media, revealing that his medical test results should be back soon, and also calling for his loss to be rendered a no-contest.

It's extremely unlikely that McGregor could get this result overturned. Fans asked for something similar last year when Alexandre Pantoja lost to the UFC flyweight title to Joshua Van after injuring his arm in the opening moments of the fight, and that was similarly shut down.

Instead, McGregor will have to wait until he can return to the cage and potentially get his revenge in a trilogy fight with Holloway sometime down the line.

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Lucas Fernando (13-3) vs. Rafael Tobias (14-2); UFC 330, Aug. 15.

Michael Page (25-3) vs. Nursulton Ruziboev (37-9-2); UFC Paris, Sep. 5.

Losene Keita (16-2) vs. Muhammad Naimov (13-4); UFC Paris, Sep. 5.

Mario Pinto (12-0) vs. Ryan Spann (24-11); UFC Paris, Sep. 5.

Oumar Sy (12-2) vs. Modestas Bukauskas (20-7); UFC Paris, Sep. 5.

Luis Felipe Dias (17-5) vs. Mattheiu Duclos (10-3); UFC Paris, Sep. 5.

Nora Cornolle (9-4) vs. Klaudia Sygula (8-2); UFC Paris, Sep. 5.

The day Vegas returns bets for something like that happening is the day pigs fly. Even if there is, honestly, a part of me that agrees with McGregor. That was essentially a fight that never happened, but that's not how the game works. Gotta take it on the chin and move on.