Conor McGregor says he has one fight left on his UFC contract, and he wants to spend it on Max Holloway.
MMA Fighting and Heavy have both reported that McGregor is down to a single bout on his current deal, and MMA Fighting reported he’s targeting International Fight Week 2027 for the return. The opponent is the man who beat him in July. In a September interview with former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill on his MAC Energy YouTube channel, McGregor said “we get retribution” and that he “yearn[s] for retribution,” per MMA Fighting.
The retribution part makes sense once you remember how UFC 329 went. McGregor and Holloway headlined at welterweight on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and McGregor’s first strike of the night was a jumping kick. He landed it and his right knee gave out. Holloway got the TKO at 1:09 of Round 1, according to UFC.com, without having to do much of anything.
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McGregor later confirmed on X that it was a torn ACL and meniscus. “It is the same injury as the first Holloway fight, only this time the opposite leg,” he wrote, per LowKick MMA. That first fight was August 2013 at UFC Fight Night Boston, where McGregor won a unanimous decision while tearing his ACL. So the series sits at 1-1, and McGregor has now wrecked a knee in both of them.
He announced on Aug. 5 that he’d had surgery. On Oct. 11 he posted what FSI247 and MMASucka described as a sparring image to his Instagram Stories, the latest sign the rehab is moving. He told O’Neill it was moving fast.
“I’m ahead of the curve. Swelling is down. I’m off the crutch two, three weeks. In fact, I was able to get off the crutch a little bit sooner than they had wished,” McGregor said, per MMA Fighting.
He also said he won’t rush it this time. McGregor admitted he came back too early from the first ACL tear and was “really … still on one leg.” His math now, per MMA Fighting: recovery runs nine to 12 months, he figures he’d be cleared at nine, and this time he plans to use the whole window. Count from July and that lands him somewhere between spring and summer 2027, which lines up with International Fight Week.
UFC CEO Dana White isn’t planning anything yet. “I’ll focus on Conor when Conor’s ready,” White said in July.
The record is the record. McGregor is 38 and 22-7, and he hasn’t won since he stopped Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds at UFC 246 in January 2020. Since then it’s been a second-round TKO loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257, a doctor stoppage loss to Poirier at UFC 264 when he broke his leg, and now Holloway. Before Cerrone, there was the fourth-round submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.
The money hasn’t dried up, at least according to his peers. Middleweight champ Sean Strickland, deep in his own pay fight with the UFC, claimed on X last week that McGregor makes 30 million to fight for 30 seconds.
My take: Holloway is the right booking. It’s the only fight on the board with a built-in story McGregor didn’t have to invent, and Holloway never really got to fight him in July. But the knee is the headliner here, and it has betrayed him in both Holloway fights. If he actually takes the full 12 months like he says, he walks out at International Fight Week 2027 as a 39-year-old with one fight left and a lot to settle. If he takes nine, I’m checking the kick count.
