Max Holloway‘s coach isn’t hopeful for a Conor McGregor trilogy.
McGregor (22-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) blew out his right knee out just 69 seconds into his comeback fight against Holloway (28-9 MMA, 24-9 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC 329 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It was McGregor’s first fight after five years away, when he broke his leg in a July 2021 injury TKO loss to Dustin Poirier.
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McGregor injured his knee at UFC 329 on the first kick he threw. He failed to stay on his feet, with Holloway even showing him mercy before referee Mike Beltran stopped the fight. Holloway’s disappointed coach, Ivan Flores, initially was confused by what transpired.
“When he threw the jumping kick, the first thing I thought of was, ‘Shoot, he lost his footing and slipped,'” Flores told Daniel Cormier on his YouTube channel. “But when he threw another kick and slipped and fell, I was like, ‘Oh crap.’ Of course you’re happy with the W and what not, but this camp was special. This camp was different.
“I haven’t seen Max this locked in in a long time. He looked so great. So, we really wanted him to – we were talking about preparing for the best version of Conor McGregor this whole time. We were really excited because we were going to show the world the best version of Max Holloway.”
McGregor confirmed that he will require surgery to repair his knee and is adamant on coming back for the final fight on his UFC contract. However, with the severity of McGregor’s injury requiring perhaps a year-long layoff, Flores isn’t as confident.
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“I don’t think so,” Flores said of a potential McGregor return. “If that knee is blown out, everything that it’s going to take for him to come back and then have the confidence, we’re looking at like another year. It’s a tough thing to do.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Max Holloway’s coach won’t hold his breath on Conor McGregor trilogy
