{"id":784816,"date":"2026-07-07T13:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784816\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T13:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:04:08","slug":"will-mcgregor-wrestle-holloway-former-ufc-champion-says-i-doubt-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/784816\/","title":{"rendered":"Will McGregor wrestle Holloway? Former UFC champion says \u2018I doubt it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

What would be the easiest way for Conor McGregor to beat Max Holloway on Saturday night at UFC 329?<\/a> Based on how we watched Charles Oliveira beat Holloway,<\/a> the obvious answer is to take \u201cBlessed\u201d down and keep him on the ground.<\/p>\n

Oliveira blanked Holloway on all three judges scorecards by shooting early takedowns and securing Holloway\u2019s back, threatening submissions for 25 minutes. It wasn\u2019t pretty,<\/a> but it was effective. Holloway had no answer for the strategy and was stuck trying to keep \u201cDo Bronx\u201d from getting his arm under his neck. And in their first fight, McGregor achieved similar domination over Holloway on the ground. Will Conor do that again? Probably not, according to former UFC champion Michael Bisping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt it, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Bisping told Casino.org.<\/a> \u201cWrestling is one of the most cardio-heavy aspects of mixed martial arts. It is so tiring trying to take down another human being that has good takedown defense. And Conor historically is very explosive but tends to fade as the fights go on, so I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll see Conor shooting [for a takedown]. I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s the smart approach, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bisping believes McGregor should rely on his knockout power, which has paid off in seven of his past eight UFC wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cConor\u2019s best chance is to go out there, believe in his left hand, land the big shot,\u201d he said. \u201cKnock him out, and then blow the roof off the T-Mobile Arena. I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s shooting for a takedown in that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

We wouldn\u2019t be so sure. While it\u2019d be smart for McGregor to keep things on the feet early while he\u2019s fresh to let his speed and power shine, strategic takedowns after the second round would be smart, especially given Conor\u2019s size advantage at welterweight. There\u2019s no way McGregor\u2019s coaches haven\u2019t watched Holloway vs. Oliveira multiple times and picked out half a dozen openings for \u201cThe Notorious\u201d to exploit if necessary.<\/p>\n

Both McGregor and Holloway are stand-up artists, and the fight will undoubtedly start out as a duel on the feet. What happens as the fight goes deeper is in question, but if Conor is smart he\u2019ll take a page out of Oliveira\u2019s (and 2013 McGregor\u2019s) book and take Max down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What would be the easiest way for Conor McGregor to beat Max Holloway on Saturday night at UFC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396],"class_list":["post-784816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784816","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=784816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}