McGregor Demands Holloway Trilogy for His Final UFC Fight: "It Has to Be Holloway"
“It has to be Holloway. Just do the f***ing thing again.”
Conor McGregor wants one more fight, and he wants it against the only man left on his list. At the BKFC 96 post-fight press conference in Glasgow, the former two-division champion said his final UFC appearance has to be a trilogy fight with Max Holloway — the man who stopped his comeback in 69 seconds at UFC 329.
GLASGOW — Conor McGregor knows exactly how he wants to finish.
"It has to be Holloway. Just do the f*ing thing again," McGregor said at the BKFC 96 post-fight press conference on Saturday night, asked who he wants to face when he returns to the Octagon next year for his last dance. "The guy [Holloway] didn't engage once. He's the one that called for the stoppage... I'd have done him on the one leg... It was just so shocking and heartbreaking to me, and I am still f*ing dealing with it."
McGregor, 38, wants the fight during International Fight Week next year. He wants no one but "Blessed."
The demand comes four months after the shortest and strangest night of McGregor's career. His comeback fight against Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11, 2026, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas — his first fight in five years, since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in 2021 — ended in 69 seconds. McGregor sprinted across the Octagon, threw a high kick, and landed awkwardly on his right leg. He ended up on his back without Holloway landing a punch.
Holloway, who had asked referee Mike Beltran to step in while McGregor was down, said afterwards that his rival refused to quit. "I tried to stop the fight but this is how crazy Conor is; the first time he was on the ground I punched him and he's like 'fight, fight'," Holloway said. "I was like 'okay, stand up then, let's fight' and I backed up. Then he fell back down and the fight was called."
The official result was a TKO win for Holloway. The diagnosis was a torn meniscus and ACL in McGregor's right knee. McGregor had surgery a few weeks after the loss and is still rehabbing.
What eats at McGregor is that the same knee betrayed him the first time these two met — and that time, he fought through it. In August 2013, at UFC Fight Night 26, McGregor beat Holloway by unanimous decision despite injuring the knee in the fight, and returned to the Octagon nine months later. The series stands at 1-1.
"Just f***ing dust it off. Redo it," McGregor said in Glasgow.
There is nothing official beyond the demand. No date, no venue, no confirmation from the UFC. But McGregor has now said it twice in two press conferences: before UFC 329, he called Holloway "the final opponent of mine still within the UFC ranks" and promised to eliminate him. After it, he is still talking about the same man, the same fight — and about a knee that has now cost him twice against the same opponent.
The trilogy, if it happens, is the only ending left that makes sense to him. The question is whether his body agrees.
