Conor McGregor is officially making his long-awaited UFC return, and the promotion wasted no time making it one of the biggest fights of 2026.
During the UFC Vegas 117 broadcast on Saturday, the UFC announced that Conor McGregor will face Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 329 on July 11 at the T-Mobile Arena during International Fight Week.
The fight marks McGregor’s first appearance in five years after suffering a gruesome broken leg in his trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier back in 2021. Since then, fans have repeatedly speculated about Conor McGregor’s comeback, but injuries and delays kept pushing his return further away.
McGregor was initially expected to face Michael Chandler in 2024 before a broken toe forced him off the card just weeks before fight night.
For a while, it genuinely felt like Conor McGregor might never fight again. However, momentum shifted when the UFC announced plans for a special White House event earlier this year. The announcement reportedly reignited McGregor’s motivation, pushing him back into the gym and back into fighting shape.
Even though he ultimately did not compete on that Washington D.C. card, the former two-division champion stayed locked in, and now his return is finally official.
The rematch with Holloway comes 13 years after their first meeting in 2013, when McGregor defeated the Hawaiian star by unanimous decision early in both fighters’ UFC careers.
After losing to McGregor, Holloway built one of the greatest runs in featherweight history, putting together a 13-fight winning streak that included back-to-back wins over Jose Aldo to capture and defend the UFC featherweight title.
Even after losing the belt to Alexander Volkanovski, Holloway continued proving himself as one of the sport’s elite fighters across both featherweight and lightweight divisions.
One of the defining moments of his career came at UFC 300, when he delivered a last-second knockout against Justin Gaethje in what many fans still consider one of the greatest knockouts in UFC history.
Most recently, Holloway dropped a decision to Charles Oliveira in a BMF title clash, but now he gets the opportunity to settle unfinished business with Conor McGregor over a decade after their first encounter.
The UFC revealed the blockbuster fight while former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou was making his walkout during the Netflix-streamed MVP MMA event headlined by Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano.
Despite his lengthy absence, Conor McGregor remains the UFC’s biggest attraction. The former featherweight and lightweight champion still holds some of the highest-selling pay-per-view records in MMA history, while his boxing crossover bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. remains one of combat sports’ biggest commercial successes ever.
Still, McGregor’s time away from the cage has not been without controversy. The Irish star remained in headlines over the years for multiple legal and personal issues, alongside repeated speculation about whether he would ever return to fighting.
Now, all of that noise takes a backseat. Conor McGregor is finally back, and standing across from him is one of the toughest and most respected fighters of his generation in Max Holloway.
