Max Holloway is grinding through another training camp for a fight that still may never materialize, but the former UFC featherweight champion says he has little choice except to stay ready.
“It sucks,” Holloway told Paramount+. “I just want to get one back.”
Holloway is preparing for a potential rematch against former two-division champion Conor McGregor at UFC 329 in Las Vegas this July, despite no contract being signed.
Much of the uncertainty surrounds McGregor’s long-awaited return to the Octagon. The Irishman has not fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021, and doubts continue to linger over whether he is fully committed to competing again.
McGregor had been heavily linked with a bout on the UFC’s proposed White House summer card, but that speculation cooled after Michael Chandler, long viewed as a possible opponent, was booked instead to face Mauricio Ruffy.
Still, Holloway remains eager to secure another fight with McGregor. The two first met in 2013, when McGregor earned a unanimous-decision victory despite suffering a torn ACL during the bout.
“My head space is good, it’s straight,” Holloway said. “I kind of know when I fight. We kind of know where we want to fight, why we want to fight, so it’s just about getting in the gym and getting it done.
“It’s a huge fight. Anything with Conor McGregor is huge, but having history with the dude and being able to get one back would be cool.”
Holloway is also eager to erase the memory of his one-sided loss to Charles Oliveira on March 7, a unanimous-decision defeat that cost him the symbolic BMF title awarded to the UFC’s “baddest” fighter.
“You’re only as good as your last fight, they say, and we’re going to make everybody forget about that last fight as soon as possible,” Holloway said.
For McGregor, the sport’s biggest draw and the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously, featherweight and lightweight, the bout would mark a return from a broken tibia and a drug suspension that have sidelined “Notorious” for much of the past five years.
Holloway, a 34-year-old Honolulu native, would likely enter as a heavy favorite against McGregor, 37, due largely to the Irishman’s lengthy layoff.
“I mean, we have history,” Holloway said. “We fought a very long time ago. I told you guys, if somebody’s got one over me, I want to get him back. I’d love to get him back.”
