Conor McGregor obviously has a lot riding on his comeback fight against Max Holloway at UFC 329.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been five years since McGregor last competed in the UFC after he suffered a gruesome broken leg in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier. While the Irish superstar was supposed to return in 2024, a broken toe kept McGregor from actually facing Michael Chandler. Even after that injury healed, there was still no word about him booking another fight.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until recently that UFC CEO Dana White announced McGregor was finally set for his return to action against Holloway on July 11. But retired UFC contender Matt Brown argues that as much as winning matters in this fight, McGregor just making it to the fight probably matters more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he doesn\u2019t make this walk, I think it\u2019s going to be unanimous agreement he\u2019s done and he\u2019s never fighting again,\u201d Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t go in there and win, I think it\u2019s going to be a unanimous agreement that no one wants to see him fight again either. Even if he looks good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean people won\u2019t watch when he fights again. That\u2019s putting a lot of \u2018ifs\u2019 in there. He goes in, he actually fights Max Holloway, he loses, I don\u2019t see anybody really interested in seeing him fight again. Of course, everybody will watch. He\u2019s a big enough star, he could fight and lose the next five or 10 times and people will still watch. He\u2019s a big enough star, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen, but the interest will wane hugely if he doesn\u2019t make this walk and find a way to win. It\u2019s a lot of pressure on his side.\u201d<\/p>\n
While McGregor has never fallen out of the public spotlight during his five-year hiatus from the sport, he\u2019s still best known as a fighter and for all the amazing accomplishments he achieved at the height of his powers. Now, McGregor returns with far more questions than answers about his future, especially taking a fight against somebody like Holloway, who has been incredibly active while competing at the top of two divisions for the past few years.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s certainly no shame in anybody losing to Holloway, but Brown believes McGregor is definitely taking a huge gamble with this fight versus his original matchup against Chandler from 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Conor makes this walk, hypothetically, which he may \u2014 he could totally prove me wrong. I don\u2019t think he will but let\u2019s say he makes the walk,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWhether he wins or loses, I have to have some respect for Conor for taking the fight against Max Holloway. A known killer who has had a ton of success since last time they fought. If he goes in and makes that walk, that\u2019s a gigantic risk for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure he understands what\u2019s on the line for him. If he loses this fight, his relevance as a fighter drops dramatically. We\u2019ll watch, he could fight another 10 times, I\u2019m sure everyone would watch. But his relevance as a world-class competitor, pretty much drops off the map. Any fights he does after that is kind of like influencer fights or something along those lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the flipside, if McGregor can pull off the upset and beat Holloway after five years away, the narrative about his future changes completely.<\/p>\n
Beating Chandler might be a nice win, but defeating Holloway at this stage of his career would be a huge checkmark on McGregor\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and immediately alters the thinking about what comes next.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he goes in and wins, he puts himself back in the conversation of a top 10 guy,\u201d Brown said about McGregor. \u201cIt\u2019s at 170, so I don\u2019t know if they\u2019d talk about the top 10 at 170 or whatever. But the conversation is he\u2019s a legit fighter still.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven through all the partying and alcohol and drugs and everything he\u2019s done in the meantime, he came back and he beat Max Holloway. That\u2019s a respectable thing to do. So I think this is a gigantic risk for Conor.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, Brown believes McGregor absolutely has a path to victory in this fight – assuming it happens – and the UFC isn\u2019t crazy for putting this matchup together in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can see the argument where you think Conor would have a good chance,\u201d Brown said. \u201cFor one, it\u2019s at 170 and Conor has good power at 170. Max is hittable. He\u2019s certainly a hittable guy. Conor has a win over him in the past. Max has been through the ringer. He\u2019s got a lot of miles on those tires. I can see where you can make that argument where it\u2019s not the worst [matchup].<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think a lot of that is going to be dependent on Max. If he comes in, puts on the weight properly and he comes in himself and feels good and he\u2019s sharp, it\u2019s certainly a win for Max. He has the experience advantage. He\u2019s been staying active in the last few years. So he\u2019s got a lot of advantages, but I\u2019m just saying I could see where they have the argument that Conor has a good shot here. I could see where Conor would see that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, and iHeartRadio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor obviously has a lot riding on his comeback fight against Max Holloway at UFC 329. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,45518,1591,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-695787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-mmaf-podcast-network","tag-podcasts","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}