Conor McGregor Says His UFC Return Has to Be Max Holloway: What Is Actually Booked
Conor McGregor stood at a BKFC press conference in Glasgow on Saturday night and named the only opponent he wants for his UFC return. “It has to be Holloway,” he said.
No fight has been booked, and the UFC has not responded. Here is what is actually true.
He Lost in 69 Seconds
McGregor, 38, fought Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It was his first UFC appearance in five years, since the leg fracture against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. He threw a kick in the opening seconds, went down three times, and signaled that he could not continue. TKO, round one, 1:09. He later said he tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee and had surgery a few weeks afterward.
His version of that night is that Holloway refused to engage. “He’s the one that called for the stoppage in the fight,” McGregor said in Glasgow. “The guy didn’t engage once.” That is McGregor’s account. Contemporaneous reporting from the arena says McGregor himself waved the fight off.
“I’d have done him on the one leg,” he added, calling the result “so shocking and heartbreaking to me.” Then: “Just do the thing again.”
The Trilogy Framing Checks Out
They have fought twice, so a third fight really would be a rubber match. McGregor beat Holloway by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 26 in Boston on August 17, 2013, at featherweight, on cards of 30-27, 30-26 and 30-27. He tore his ACL during that fight and was out roughly 10 months, which is the precedent he keeps citing. “I done this injury before and returned within nine months,” he said, putting himself three months post-surgery and calling nine months “pre-summer.”
Dana White has a different estimate. In late July, the UFC chief executive said flatly that “Conor McGregor’s out for a year.” White is still running the company after telling President Trump on Monday that he has “zero political aspirations” and declining the White House press secretary job he had been publicly offered.
White has not answered the Glasgow comments. His last word on a Holloway rematch, back in July, was dismissive. “Father Time is undefeated. Okay?” he said, adding that “I’m not even thinking about any of that stuff because it’s so long and so far away it doesn’t matter.”
Holloway Will Take It and Does Not Rate It
Holloway, 34 and 28-9, said after UFC 329 that “we’ve got to run it back one more time,” and told his YouTube audience in August that “if it’s a Conor McGregor fight again, I’ll sign the dotted line.” He also said this: “Dude is delusional because, to me, he felt slow in there. He looked old.”
One correction, because this gets reported wrong constantly. Holloway does not hold the BMF title. He won it from Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 in April 2024, defended it against Poirier at UFC 318, and lost it to Charles Oliveira by unanimous decision at UFC 326 in March. Oliveira has the belt. Nothing was on the line at UFC 329.
What There Is to Go On
McGregor is enrolled in the anti-doping testing pool and has been tested 15 times in 2026, more than almost anyone on the roster. He says this is the final fight on his UFC contract and that he intends to move to bare-knuckle afterward, though the UFC has never confirmed that contract math. He has floated International Fight Week in July 2027 as a target and also suggested pre-summer. Holloway has nothing booked either, and there are no odds, because there is no fight.
What exists is a 38-year-old asking for a third fight on the strength of a 69-second non-contact injury, and a former champion who says he will sign the contract while also saying the man across from him looked finished. One of those two has leverage, and it is not the one doing the talking.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
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