Michael Bisping believes Conor McGregor remains a dangerous opponent for Max Holloway ahead of their UFC 329 welterweight rematch, citing the Irishman\u2019s size, power and mindset despite a five-year absence from competition.<\/p>\n
McGregor is scheduled to face Holloway in the UFC 329 main event on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas during International Fight Week. The bout marks a rematch of their first meeting in August 2013, when McGregor defeated Holloway by unanimous decision in a featherweight contest.<\/p>\n
Bisping praised McGregor for accepting the fight after a lengthy layoff. \u201cI respect Conor coming back and taking on Max Holloway, because Holloway\u2019s been very active whilst Conor hasn\u2019t fought for 5 years. He\u2019s days away from his 38th birthday when he does compete against Max Holloway, so full respect for taking this match up,\u201d said Bisping, according to Casino<\/a> and as noted by LowKick<\/a>. He also pointed to the welterweight limit as a potential advantage for McGregor, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s happening at 170-pounds, so I think that gives Conor a little bit of an advantage. I think naturally he\u2019s a bigger guy, and certainly when you look at punching power, Conor will have massive power and advantage over Max Holloway.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, Bisping highlighted the challenges posed by Holloway\u2019s style and recent activity. \u201cBut Holloway breaks you down over the course of the fight though. When he points at the floor in the last 10 seconds, that\u2019s because he\u2019s broken you down over that entire period and he knows he\u2019s got you and he\u2019s like, \u2018okay, let\u2019s go\u2019. And that\u2019s when he knocks you out,\u201d said Bisping. \u201cHe\u2019s quick, he\u2019s slick, he\u2019s smooth, he\u2019s got excellent footwork, he\u2019s got great hand speed. I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s a really interesting fight for both of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions remain over McGregor\u2019s condition after suffering a broken leg in his July 2021 loss to Dustin Poirier and subsequently undergoing surgery. Bisping acknowledged those concerns, saying: \u201cConor\u2019s been away for 5 years, obviously that\u2019s an issue. The leg break, that\u2019s an issue. But also, this is a guy that took the sport by storm, and was a two-weight division champion.\u201d He added: \u201cHe\u2019s only 37, and yeah, that\u2019s not young as a pro fighter, but he\u2019s not an old man, and in some ways you could argue that not fighting for 5 years, he hasn\u2019t had the wear and tear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Bisping believes Conor McGregor remains a dangerous opponent for Max Holloway ahead of their UFC 329 welterweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-752653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752653","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=752653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}