After years of rumors and speculation, former two-division champion Conor McGregor will return to the octagon in the UFC 329 main event on July 11 against former BMF titleholder Max Holloway.
It’ll have been five years since McGregor last fought when he makes the walk to the cage inside T-Mobile Arena to face Holloway in a rematch during the fight promotion’s annual International Fight Week.
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McGregor and Holloway first fought at UFC Fight Night 26 in August 2013. The bout took place on the preliminary fight card and in the featherweight division. The Irishman defeated Holloway via unanimous decision in a fight that he tore his ACL and relied on grappling. The rematch will take place in the welterweight division and former middleweight champion Chris Weidman believes McGregor only has one chance to defeat the Hawaiian.
“I’m excited (for McGregor’s return). There’s a lot of unanswered questions, you know, on how he’s going to look on his comeback,” Weidman said on Deep Waters. “Max has been so active. Obviously, he lost to [Charles] Oliveira in his last fight, but before that, I mean, he’s been looking great. And he’s not going to have to worry about the wrestling and jiu-jitsu, obviously, of Conor McGregor.
“And Max just gets better as the fight goes on. Conor slows down to begin with, and this is five years off. It’s just a big uphill.”
In his assessment of how the fight may play out, Weidman gave McGregor a ‘puncher’s chance’ to emerge victorious.
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“I think all of us are probably going to be on the same page where like the only chance Conor really has is to knock out Max. And probably in the first or second round,” Weidman said. “He’s also going against one of the biggest volume punchers we’ve ever seen. So, he’s not coming back in against a guy who’s going to have an easy pace to deal with. Max just keeps coming.”
