Las Vegas — Repeating a line he threw out during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan at UFC 329, Max Holloway said of Conor McGregor on Saturday that “I had him weak in the knees, I guess.”
Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, decked out in Hawaii’s royal colors, Holloway addressed the shocking, premature end to the pair’s rematch. A fight that was McGregor’s comeback after five years out of action.
The entire fight lasted little more than a minute, with McGregor appearing to blow out his right knee off the first kick thrown. That, after snapping his left leg five years ago in his third fight with Dustin Poirier.
“All jokes aside, I just hope he’s good. I know Conor’s been battling some stuff, looked like he’d really been changing,” Holloway stated during the event’s post-fight press conference. “He found God, he had his kids in there.”
“During the fight you could really tell. His demeanor changed. Shout out to the ref. I was trying to tell the ref sooner,” Holloway said of the injury. “This guy’s kids is front row, I don’t want to see him take unnecessary damage. Tried to stop the fight. But this is how crazy Conor is, the first time he’s on the ground, I’m punching him, he’s like ‘fight, fight!’ I was like ‘okay,’ that’s why I backed off, I said ‘stand up then. Let’s fight.’ Then he fell back down, and the fight was called.”
Despite having his own job to focus on, mainly finishing the fight, Holloway showed admirable restraint in the moment.
“We killers, we killers, but at the end of the day I’m a human being. I think that’s actually why I’m so loved in this sport, because I can separate the fighter from the person.”
Holloway wished his two-time opponent a speedy recovery, but he’s not necessarily done with McGregor yet. A trilogy fight would most certainly be lucrative for the Hawaiian, after all. “He was talking about this 170 domain, I put in this 170 work. We worked our asses off here, especially turning around so quick after that March fight, and to come back, I want to feel this domain that he’s talking about, this 170 Conor that he’s talking about, this different world. That’s what I want. I want to see what his injury is, and as for me, I’m down to come back 2027.
Holloway added that he’s going to take some family time, with 2027 his likely return date. Which puts him on track whether it’s McGregor or lightweight champ Justin Gaethje next, given the latter has also signaled that he wants time off.
Watch the full UFC 329 post-fight press conference appearance by Max Holloway above.
