As Khabib Nurmagomedov once said, “Thank you Michael Chandler, go home and fight with some other fighters.”
Former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor is expected to make his combat sports comeback at some point later this year, capitalizing on his “crazed” return to The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) franchise ahead of his self-aggrandizing documentary “McGregor Forever.”
There’s only one problem.
McGregor has yet to satisfy his pre-fight requirements with United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which means “Notorious” is still considered a retired athlete and won’t be eligible to face fellow TUF coach Michael Chandler without passing a battery of drug tests.
Depending on how long that stalemate drags on, the promotion could elect to rebook Chandler against a different opponent. If that’s the case, former featherweight champion Max Holloway is prepared to renew his McGregor rivalry — at any weight possible.
“I would love to fight Conor, I was the only guy that took Conor to a decision at 145,” Holloway told The MMA Hour. “I know he wants to come back, but that’d be a fight that [would be] super interesting, super fun. A lot of a lot of questions. There’s a lot of unknowns, because we’re just two different fighters from who we were back then. And I think it’d be a fan favorite. I think a lot of fans would love that fight, a lot of fans have been asking for that fight, so we’ll see what happens.”
McGregor defeated Holloway by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 26 back in summer 2013 in just the second UFC fight for “Notorious.” The power-punching irishman would later move up to compete at both lightweight and welterweight, to mixed results.
“At the end of the day, it’s not even a weight thing,” Holloway continued. “I’ll fight him openweight, whatever — whatever the commission would tell us, just show up to the weight, bro. Like, you don’t have to worry. I’d just love to go out there and test him. We’ve got to be close to each other [in weight], I guess, because all this commission stuff, but we can take it to the UFC 1 rules and we’ll just show up and just fight. Why not?”
Holloway (24-7) jumped to lightweight to battle Dustin Poirier for the interim title in early 2019 but came up short on the judges’ scorecards. “Blessed” promptly returned to 145 pounds where he continues to put a beating on everyone not named Alex Volkanovski.
McGregor has yet to respond to the Hawaiian’s callout.