Max Holloway comments on potential slugfest with Conor McGregor at UFC 329

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NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JULY 19: Max Holloway gestures to Dustin Poirier in the final minute of the BMF championship bout during the UFC 318 event at Smoothie King Center on July 19, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC) Max Holloway hasn’t stood across the octagon from Conor McGregor in 13 years, but he’ll finally get the chance to avenge that past loss when they meet again in the UFC 329 main event on Saturday. In the lead-up to the highly anticipated fight, Holloway has certainly heard a lot of talk from McGregor — that much he always expected — but even he’s been a little surprised by how much the Irish superstar is leaning on that past win from 2013. On that night, McGregor tore his ACL in the second round, and Holloway was dealing with a severe ankle injury, but the future two-division champion got the job done with a unanimous decision win. As they prepare to clash in their rematch, Holloway is honest enough to admit that neither one of them should be banking on much from that first fight, although nobody has apparently shared that with McGregor. “You guys have been seeing some interviews and him talking about the last one,” Holloway told MMA Fighting. “That was 13 years ago. It’s kind of crazy. It’s any of these rematches. I’m having these rematches 10 plus years later, and you can’t take nothing away from that first time you fought. It is what it is. I can’t wait. July 11. Return of the Max. Mystic Max. It’s going to be a fun night.” While 13 years is a very long time, McGregor has earned a different number much more frequently lately, and that’s five years. That’s the amount of time that has passed since McGregor last competed in the UFC after dealing with a gruesome broken leg from his third encounter with Dustin Poirier back in 2021. Of course, McGregor has promised that he’s back and better than ever before, but it’s impossible not to question what version shows up when he clashes with Holloway at UFC 329. For his part, Holloway isn’t thinking about the long layoff, or if McGregor is somehow returning past his prime, because making those kinds of assumptions could be disastrous. “It’s five years. It could have gone the other way,” Holloway explained. “We saw what he was doing in the five years, and that’s where there’s the questions. But I’m just mentally getting ready for the best Conor McGregor there is. Five years, you get to reset, you get to take care of your body, you get to not do weight cuts, and you just got to let your body recover for a little bit. “I know everybody [is going to say] ‘Is Max blind? We saw him partying and blah, blah, blah.’ But it is what it is. Maybe he wanted you to see that. No one knows what happened behind closed doors, have a camera following him around 24/7. At the end of the day, I’m getting ready for the best Conor McGregor, and I can’t wait.” Coming off a disappointing outing against Charles Oliveira in his last fight, Holloway knows he’s got plenty to prove in this fight, even if the majority of the narrative surrounding this rematch has been about McGregor. That’s why Holloway is determined to shut McGregor down and hopefully put him away in devastating fashion just to cement his status as one of the best fighters in the world. But what happens if McGregor finds a way to stick around and make this a dog fight across all five rounds? What if McGregor just refuses to go away, and he’s still swinging for the fences as the final moments tick away on the clock? In that scenario, Holloway might get the chance to once again point down to the canvas and invite a slugfest just as he did to Justin Gaethje at UFC 300, which resulted in one of the craziest and most memorable knockouts in combat sports history. But would McGregor actually risk it all in that moment? “For sure. I think he would if we get to that point, and he has the energy to do it,” Holloway said. “We’ll see what happens. If we don’t get to that point, that’d be great. But if we do, I think he is [down]. Why not? Maybe. I would say he would do it. I’ve got nothing but respect for the guy. At the end of the day, I’d say he’d do it, but we’ve got to factor in how the fight went. I don’t know how the fight is going. If the fight is competitive, I’d say for sure. “If the fight is not [competitive], maybe not so. But there’s so many different scenarios, but my heart is telling me that he probably would do it. He’s back. His fans are there. People screaming for him. I think he might just push himself to go do it.” In a perfect world, Holloway hopes McGregor never makes it that far because he reserves that “point down” move for those final 10 seconds in the last round. And for all the talk about the pressure surrounding McGregor and his comeback, Holloway doesn’t discount the importance of this fight for his own career moving forward. A win puts Holloway in prime position to potentially battle for a UFC title again, but a loss sends him careening in the exact opposite direction, and that’s the last thing he wants. “I mean, it’s do-or-die for both of us, I believe,” Holloway said. “There’s a lot riding on this fight. Even though it’s at 170, you see the 155-champ Justin Gaethje talking about this fight. You see a lot of people talking about if he does this, he can do this, he can go to the Islam [Makhachev] route. At the end of the day, it’s a huge fight. That’s all I can focus on. I’m just focused on Conor McGregor. I need to go out there, get my hand raised in exciting fashion. Not just get my hand raised. This sport, as you can see, just getting your hand raised sometimes doesn’t get the job done for you. “At the end of the day, I’ve got to go out there, I’ve got to be exciting. I’ve got to get a big finish, or if not a big finish, a super dominant win in a way where people are just mind-blown, and people are excited about it. People keep forgetting. Yes, we’re fighters, we need to win, but we’re also entertainers. That’s what I plan to do. That’s why people tune into my fights, and this fight is going to be no different.”

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 07: (R-L) Charles Oliveira of Brazil wrestles Max Holloway in the BMF Championship fight during the UFC 326 event at T-Mobile Arena on March 07, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC) Max Holloway and Conor McGregor headline UFC 329 this Saturday with Holloway looking to avenge a 13-year-old loss. To do so, he may have to show off his complete skill set, according to Belal Muhammad. “Remember the Name” broke down the upcoming main event on his YouTube channel, suggesting that it might not be the standup duel fans are expecting. While Holloway and McGregor are both known for their spectacular knockouts and classic striking battles, if Holloway is to even the series, he may have to mix the martial arts in a way that throws McGregor off his game. “Max, last fight, obviously lost to [Charles] Oliveira, got taken down a lot, got held down a lot, controlled on the ground,” Muhammad said. “I don’t think we’re going to see any of that with McGregor, so I think it’s going all going to take [place] primarily on the feet. I think the probably the person that should initiate the grappling should be Holloway. “We don’t know where McGregor is. He’s definitely added a lot of muscle on his body, so his cardio’s going to get trained. So for Holloway, I would definitely add in a takedown to wear on him, to get past that first three or four minutes. I think that first three or four minutes, McGregor’s going to come out hot. He knows, when he was at the top, his cardio was a problem. Now five years off, extra muscle, higher weight class, I think his cardio’s going to be even a bigger problem. So for Holloway, survive those first two, three minutes, even initiating the clinch, just stay away from the left hand. Even if you don’t believe it, even if you don’t think he still has it, just stay away. There’s no need, it’s a 25-minute fight.” Holloway suffered a disappointing defeat in his most recent fight at UFC 326, where he was soundly out-grappled by Charles Oliveira over five rounds en route to losing a decision and the “BMF” championship. Though Holloway has shown grappling acumen in the past, it’s primarily been used defensively to keep fights on the feet as opposed to grounding his opponents (only two of Holloway’s 27 career victories have come by way of submission). Ironically, McGregor won their first meeting via decision in 2013 by using his grappling to slow Holloway after McGregor suffered a knee injury during the contest. Muhammad doesn’t expect to see that well-rounded version of McGregor this time around, especially with the former two-division champion having been sidelined for five years, a hiatus from competition that begin in 2021 after McGregor broke his leg in a loss to Dustin Poirier. “Long five years, a crazy five years if you’re living the McGregor lifestyle,” Muhammad said. “So which Conor are we going to see back in this cage? Obviously, the last time we saw him, Dustin broke his leg, so just coming back from that is going to be hard, but coming back from that, then coming back from drugs, then coming back from partying, then coming back from probably not doing anything sort of training at all the last five years, which McGregor is going to show up? “I don’t think we’re going to know until the cage door locks and we see at least three minutes, then we’ll have an idea of which McGregor we got. Is he still there, does he still have any fight left in him, does he still have any motivation left in him? He can talk the talk, we know he can talk, but fight night is where we see if he still has it.” Muhammad’s advice for Holloway doesn’t mean he thinks “Blessed” will simply wrestle his way to a win. But with McGregor’s fighting shape and mentality in question, Muhammad expects any scenario that lasts beyond the the first few minutes to end in a Holloway victory. “For my pick, I’m going with Holloway,” Muhammad said. “I think five years off, five years of drugs, five years of recovery, it’s going way too much for McGregor to come back. “Holloway’s hot, I think he’s going to be motivated after that loss and more motivated now even after Justin won that fight knowing that a bigger fight will be on the horizon. I’m picking Holloway and going with finish. I think he’s going to hurt him to the body, catch him up top, and I’m going to go with TKO.”