Max Holloway will point to canvas and dare Conor McGregor to brawl at UFC 329, but will ‘Notorious’ accept? ‘Probably’
Max Holloway has been known to point to the canvas and dare his opponents to stand and bang in the waning seconds of his fights. Some fighters commit, others respectfully decline to avoid this gruesome fate. Not surprisingly, Holloway will issue a similar challenge in the fifth round of his UFC 329 main event against Conor McGregor this Sat. night (July 11) in Las Vegas — if the contest lasts that long.
“For sure,” Holloway told MMA Fighting. “I think he would [do it] if we get to that point, and he has the energy to do it. We’ll see what happens. If we don’t get to that point, that’d be great. But if we do, I think he is [down]. Why not? Maybe. I would say he would do it. I’ve got nothing but respect for the guy. At the end of the day, I’d say he’d do it, but we’ve got to factor in how the fight went. I don’t know how the fight is going. If the fight is competitive, I’d say for sure. If the fight is not [competitive], maybe not so. But there’s so many different scenarios, but my heart is telling me that he probably would do it. He’s back. His fans are there. People screaming for him. I think he might just push himself to go do it.”
McGregor, who turns 38 in just over a week, has only seen a fifth round once in his MMA career, a majority decision victory over Nate Diaz at UFC 202. That was nearly a decade ago and “Notorious” has not competed in five years, so questions remain about the former two-division champ’s conditioning ahead of this weekend’s long-awaited rematch.
“There’s a lot riding on this fight,” Holloway added. “Even though it’s at 170, you see the 155-champ Justin Gaethje talking about this fight. You see a lot of people talking about if he does this, he can do this, he can go to the Islam [Makhachev] route. At the end of the day, it’s a huge fight. I need to go out there, get my hand raised in exciting fashion. Not just get my hand raised. This sport, as you can see, just getting your hand raised sometimes doesn’t get the job done for you. I’ve got to go out there, I’ve got to be exciting. I’ve got to get a big finish, or if not a big finish, a super dominant win in a way where people are just mind-blown, and people are excited about it. Yes, we’re fighters, we need to win, but we’re also entertainers. That’s what I plan to do. That’s why people tune into my fights, and this fight is going to be no different.”
Holloway, 34, needs a big finish after getting dominated by Charles Oliveira in their “BMF” showdown at UFC 326 last March. “Blessed” is just 1-2 following his epic knockout finish over Gaethje at UFC 300 and may find himself in no man’s land with a loss to McGregor. Either way, it sounds like the Hawaiian is ready for his stand-and-bang moment, but something tells me the fight will be over long before the final frame.
