Conor McGregor coach explains late arrival in Las Vegas for UFC comeback: ‘I apologise’

Conor McGregor’s coach has explained the fighter’s late arrival in Las Vegas for Saturday’s clash with Max Holloway, taking responsibility for the delay.

This weekend, McGregor will fight Holloway in the welterweight main event of UFC 329, 13 years after outpointing the Hawaiian at featherweight.

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McGregor has not fought in five years, having suffered a broken leg in his last bout, and having withdrawn from a 2024 fight with Michael Chandler due to a broken toe, which he sustained two weeks beforehand.

As such, fans are hesitant to get too excited for the Holloway rematch until it actually begins, and there was nervousness among the fandom when McGregor was absent from the first two episodes of UFC Embedded this week. The YouTube series typically follows fighters in the days before a major event.

However, McGregor’s longtime coach John Kavanagh has offered an explanation for McGregor’s absence, telling journalist Ariel Helwani: “I’ll apologise. I maybe had a part in him being a bit late arriving.

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“We were originally gonna come in on Friday, and we were up in Newport [in Rhode Island], and it’s so beautiful, and I might have suggested, ‘Why don’t we stay here another few days, and just go in at the last moment,’ because the weather was… you know, the climate’s perfect.

“We got a few extra training sessions done over that weekend, which I feel – if we would have come into Vegas – we may not have. So, I think it worked out well, because the weather here [in Vegas] is [much hotter].”