Israel Adesanya sees Conor McGregor potentially mixing things up again against Max Holloway.
McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) returns to rematch Holloway (27-9 MMA, 23-9 UFC) in a welterweight bout, which headlines UFC 329 on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+).
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McGregor grappled his way into a unanimous decision win over Holloway in their first fight in 2013, but that wasn’t by design. At that point, McGregor boasted a 100 percent finish rate, and only opted to wrestle after blowing out his knee.
While circumstances are different with McGregor returning from a five-year long layoff due to injury, Adesanya thinks cardio may now be the reason McGregor switches game plans.
“Conor might get tired, he goes heavy from Round 1, 2, but I don’t think Max is going to get tired,” Adesanya told Demetrious Johnson. “If Conor grapples, it might be the difference in this fight. But again, Max has just been in the trenches. He’s just been getting active, and Conor hasn’t fought since the Dustin(Poirier) fight (in 2021). He doesn’t believe in cage rust – I know that. But, reality is reality, and Max is reality.
“So dealing with that for your first fight back, I reckon he should have done the (Michael) Chandler fight. They have the story there. Chandler f*cking sat how many years of his career waiting for this fight? Regardless, it was too long, and I think Conor should have fought Michael Chandler in his fight back because it would have been – to come back and fight Max, a volume puncher, a guy who is just going to be in your face with legs, hands, that’s not an easy fight to come back to. But look, if anyone rises to the occasion, it’s ‘The Notorious’ one, Conor.”
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Holloway’s most recent outing saw him getting heavily outgrappled by Charles Oliveira at UFC 326 en route to a dominant unanimous decision loss.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Israel Adesanya won’t rule out McGregor wrestling Holloway at UFC 329
