MMA Fighting - BREAKING: Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway 2 OFFICIAL For UFC 329

Episode Date: May 17, 2026

Following Dana White's big announcement of Conor Mcgregor's return to action in a rematch against #maxholloway at UFC 329, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Try O-D-O-4-Free at O-D-O-D-O-O-com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-D-com. Folks, we thought this might happen. We thought we might be talking about some big news coming from UFC land. We knew that big news would not be coming from anything that came from UFC Vegas 117 while it wasn't a horrible card. It just was kind of forgettable with everything else going on with the MVP card, sort of stealing all the headlines.

You're wondering if we're going to get the Connor McGregor return announcement, would this be sort of an A-Rod, right when about the A-Rod opting out of his Yankees contract right before the Boston Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies in the World Series. And while it's not exactly the same as that, people thought oh maybe they'll do it right for ronda rousey fights no they did it right before francis and ganu fought dana white jumps on instagram live and makes it official connor mcgregor is back the world's worst kept secret fight we've been talking about for

almost two months now but it is now officially official at least according to ufc language it is connor mcgregor versus max holloway two july 11th ufc 329 international fight week team mobile arena in Las Vegas. It is a done deal. And yeah, let's get into it because we just watched Mike Perry beat the ever-loving holy hell out of one Nathan Diaz, got the second round finish. And apparently he's calling out Jake Paul right now. But before we get to Rhonda Rousey versus Gina Corrata, we wanted to come on here and react to this. I am Mike Heck and joining me to react to this. The man who joined me on UFC duty today. Everyone wanted the MVP duty, but only two souls are brave enough to travel virtually to the world's most famous apex and it was the two of

us jad mishu how are you my friend first off i actually quite enjoyed the uc main card the prelims were there were there was actually some kind of fun stuff there um we had a world's first we'll talk about that maybe in our post show we'll see um but like i had fun um and it really has worked out well because I straight up think pointedly MVP has kind of cross-stitched them. We're like, we're not going to have these fights. So you've just gotten to kind of build your own fight card, which has been quite nice. But I did want to defend that. I've had fun at the UFC thing.

But, Mike, I have, you know that my deepest regret in life, Mike, is that I didn't have the chutzpah to stand by my belief that Sean Shicken was going to upset Israel. That is, of all the regrets, I have. That's probably number one in my life. Number two is that when we did BTL earlier this week or perhaps it was a preview show, I think it was the preview show actually, not BTL. We talked about this Connor McGregor announcement and would it happen on Saturdays? We all knew this fight was coming. This was not a secret. It has been an open secret for months at this point. Would it come? And I was like, you know, that kind of makes sense. And then you

were like, no, it would not. Dana still likes and respects Ron DeRoussey. And I was like, you know, that's right. Maybe you're right, Mike. And I didn't think the other appropriate thought, which was he does, but he

fucking hates Francis deignano. So I bet he drops it during that fight, and that's exactly what happened. He was not counter-programming MVP MMA. He was doing that to spite for big fran and i can't believe i didn't like immediately think of it and the moment the at like the millisecond that uh daman dropped in our work slack was like dana's going live on

ig he's about to announce it i was like of course he is it's about to be the francis walkout of course he is we're such idiots my second big is regret in life mike i get that i actually didn't think about that either because if they're going to be like we're going to counter program all of this it wouldn't have been for the ingano fight like that wouldn't have been like the strategic move this was this is an absolutely just eff you to francis like that's that's that's what a strategy because they don't have to have strategy right like we talked about this a little bit back in the day they used to counter program events with like they brought anderson sylva on a short notice fight to counter program affliction you know like that's that you're not counter program

program of jack shit with milky cost Arnold allen but you can you can give a pointed f you to the one person you actually don't like involved in this thing and he sure did that yep that's what they did more than anything and sure they grabbed some headlines someone asked earlier's like do you feel like this takes all the headlines from MVP and i'm like no not at all like MVP is the story of the night everything that i'm seeing as far as numbers uh say that this is it's just a washout MVP's just clobbered everything but now at least with this announcement the ufc is at least in the conversation if there's like a top eight things going on in combat sports the ufc's now in it they weren't in it with the ufc vegas 117 they're in it

now with this announcement so we probably should have expected the timing on this but look they did it they did it jed they announced it and we'll get into some of the other fights they were announced as well. Obviously, we'll talk about the events and everything that's going on on our post show. We're going to be here until Rhonda Rousey and Gina Carrano start walking to the damn cage. But now that it could be an hour. It could be. The way that the pacing has been has been. I don't think so. It could be. I think the pacing has been very pointedly to not overlap with UFC fights because otherwise it's incredibly convenient that none of there has been no overlapping action functionally. And so now that the UFC

card's done i suspect we'll we'll get a move on once people out of the ring here yeah i don't know if that's going to be true but we'll see i hope you're right i totally hope you're right i hope we're like going right to the promo and right to the lockouts but okay now it is official jed it is connor mcgregor versus max hallway they're already john back and forth on social media this is a thing this is ufc 329 just are made a whole fight card uh almost all of it i think they announced nine 10 11 fights something like that i i see 11 fights announced if it's not the whole fight card it's functionally the whole fight it's most of it yeah they didn't add any fights no one would be like that's a light fight card yeah because

like josh hoakett wins at the white house quickly they'll probably throw him right back in there but really quick turnaround but maybe we're gregor holloway it's set the rematch from 13 years ago in beautiful scenic boston massachusetts 13 years later here we are um reaction. Not that you're surprised by this, but are you in the boat of, okay, it's cool to see a poster, but until I see two men locked in a cage and one of them is Connor McGregor, I ain't buying what they're selling just yet. No, I'm not saying this 100% going to happen. I am at the stage where I'll actually be quite surprised if this one doesn't happen. I thought once the other one got announced for 303. I was like, okay. And then it felt weird to me that Connor withdrew

and then a whole bunch of other stuff happened and, you know, whatever. And then he just took a long time off and, you know, he was like, oh, I want to fight the White House. And then they were like, you're not going to fight at the White House. And so this has, it's been a long and circuitous road to get here. But I said this five years ago when he fought Dustin Porre. And I, I, I, I, I, was just early, I think. I maintain the same stance I've had forever, which is either Connor is not going to fight again or he's going to fight to get out of his contract.

Connor McGregor can't make that much money in the UFC anymore. I mean, you make a lot of money. You make more money than anybody else than the UFC is making. But there is a half billion dollars waiting for him outside the confines of the UFC. And so if he is ultimately, going to just be like, I'm rich enough. I don't need more money. I will never fight again.

That's one thing. I think that he has made the determination. Hey, I got two fights on this contract. I just got to get them done. I got to get these done because I can go box Jake Paul and make $100 million. And I am boxed Jake Paul again and make $100 million. And I can fight Nate Diaz and make $100 million or whatever he would make for that. Probably wouldn't be 100 outside of the U.C.

but you know and she maybe you know manning pack out well there are both options out there i can i can make a he can make i think a half billion dollars outside of the confines of the ufc maybe more like if he actually win some of these fights you know he does it he's not just a pinata why would he if he's coming back why he's not coming back to fight for but he doesn't give a shit about a belt you know and so he's going to come back he's going to take two fights. I bet he fights again this year.

That's where I bet. I bet he fights at July and he gets one in before the end of the year or maybe at the very beginning of next year. So he can be done because there is business to attend to outside of the UFC. And especially, especially now that he is seeing, oh, that's real. Like, it would be real for me anyway. I am a brand that could build this. Jake Paul and the keys

they have they have built a thing this is happening right now I want to let me go let me go do that where I will get paid the most amount of money for my services I think he wants out so I think he's going to fight this he's going to fight whoever else they give him for his last one

if they give him in Tom Aspinall he'll just be like sure I'll fight Tom let's go so he can be done and move on I mean historically the UFC has not made that type of thing easy on fighters especially fighters who are stars, even if they don't even really care to be in business with them.

Like, look what they did with Nate Diaz. They just kept him on the shell forever. And then they were like, you know what? Fine. You're going to go, we have no chance of signing you. We're going to feed you to Hamzat Shemayev. And then the M.M.A. gods shown upon the, and Hamzat decided to just not make weight and just beat Kevin Holland.

And then Nate could leave on a high note by finishing Tony Ferguson. Like, it was unbelievable the way that that whole thing, worked out. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Like, I wonder if Connor resigned before this. Like, we don't even know that part of it yet. Like, we have no clue. I would be really surprised if Connor resigned. He should, he'd be crazy if he did unless they offered him in the world. Resigned. Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. He shouldn't do that unless he is just naive, which unless he's resigning a contract that the UFC would never give him, right? Where it's like he can do anything he wants outside. He can box in freely.

then like I why would he just fight twice fight twice and go box many pack you I'll make 100 million dollars yeah get out go fight your two fights but again it will not I just wish it was just that easy it's just not going to be they're going to drag this through the mud they try at some point I mean they are contractually obligated to if they've they've got one their contractual obligated to give him another one within like seven months or whatever it is if I mean he should just not negotiate the last fight's but whatever I guess yes, yes is the answer I will go fight and fight them and be done because it is the, it's very silly that this is a world we live in, but it is. If he wants to do the thing he wants to do, he needs to be outside of the UFC to do it.

And the first step of that is apparently Max Holloway, which I still don't understand, Mike. I scale one to ten, because I'm seeing this all over the place. Where are the chances you're giving Connor McGregor in this fight? Oh, none. Zero. No, I mean, 1% because a bolt of lightning is, like, technically possible, there's no chance to win this fight. This is, there's just, what's he going to do?

Like, what, I mean, so he beat Max a million years ago with a bumleg, is honestly one of his better wins, is before Max was good at fighting, realistically, and because he blew his knee out, he did a lot of takedowns. Well, that's not remotely a viable. opportunity for him. His left hand is potent for seven full minutes. Max Holloway has one of the greater chins in the history of the sport. It was cracked, so like maybe, but he's going to get put through a wood chipper.

And the problem was like, at least with Porreier, it was sudden, you know? Like when Poirier buried him, he buried him quick. Connor had big moments and then Porre had put him down. Max isn't going to put him down like that. Max is going to drown him with a death by a thousand beat the shit out of yous. Like it is, this is going to be, which is why, like, on Conner's hand, he's just going to take fight. And it does, like, if you were removing entirely, this, this fight makes a lot of sense in, like, a traditional fight standpoint of two guys probably past their primes, huge names, big fight, super fun. All of that is true.

Totally on board with it. promotionally I don't understand what the UFC wants it but I get why you know why everybody else would take it all of their reasons make sense to me I just I mean I will tell you right now whatever iteration of the climb I am on come July Max Holloway will be part of it well let's take a look at some current betting lines

our friends of fan duel have Max Holloway already is a minus 520 favorite with the company open less and got pushed down instantaneously. Yeah, minus 520, come back on Connor's plus 350. A couple other sites have Holloway. All the, there's only like three decent sites that are like listed that MMA betters go to consistently and trust. All of them have Max Holloway as at least a minus 500 favorite. Some have a minus 530, some have a minus 520, but not a lot of, not a lot of, not a lot of

of faith in one Connor McGregor here, Jed. There's no reason to have faith in him. Like there's the only, like genuinely the only positive, I guess if you really want to be friendly, there are two positives. One, we have now seen Max get finished.

So, okay, maybe this time Connor can crack his chin. I do not think that is remotely likely, but it's more likely now than it was two years ago, I guess. And the other is, I didn't see but this is at welterweight right

is it 170 pounds I would assume so yeah yeah you know max holloway is a big featherweight fine size lightweight not a real welterweight not that Connor really is a real welterweight but he's been large for quite some time

so he's probably gonna carry that size a little bit better but yeah man like I said this years and years ago so like 2016 or whatever maybe not 2016 but like 2018 um like the peak version of max holloway stuff's the peak version of connor mcgregor in a locker room we are much closer to the peak version of max holloway than we are the peak version of connor who hasn't fought in five years

uh has always been a little bit of a glass cannon and i just yeah i think he has no real shot in this fight it's tough matcha for him we'll see see what happens. I mean, look, Connor McGregor making a walk to a UFC Octagon, matter how you feel about that man in the year of our Lord, 2026, considering how the fan base has been reacting to the UFC this year, they need it, man.

They need it pretty bad. They need something big, like real big. And like, Strickland Shemayef is, that's like, that's modern big. That's like what, that's like as big as we can expect in 2026. but Connor fighting Max

like that is this is the biggest fight like once those two get in the cage it will be the biggest fight it'll be the biggest fight in like the last five years for the UFC because Connor's this is the last time Connor fought yeah yeah he's the biggest star in the history of the sport so

it just is what it is that's just the world we live in and that's how big of a star Connor McGregor is and you know what Connor McGregor will do and might get a little weird he's going to try he's going to be a trier throughout this entire thing to try to get eyeballs on it. I mean, he instantaneously talked shit to Max

who he's really just never talked shit to Max before, right? Like, why would you? Like, yeah, he's going to go full Connor on this thing. Which, you know, I've already I'm frankly having enough of

full Elliott to Poria, so us getting a full Connor is going to be a lot of a lot of awful personalities for me to have to deal with, but it will be big and that will make it worth it. Yes. So that is happening July 11th. Let's run down the rest of the card before we get out of here about seven minutes away from I guess ringwalks for Rhonda and Gina, which is pretty good. The co-main event is officially Ben-Wasantini versus Patty Pimblit. Now the rest of the lineup, they've made it very clear. This is not an official bout order, but it is clear as a day what the main event is. According to these graphics, what the co-main event is. Ben-Wasant-D-Vos-D- versus Patty Pimblit. Didn't think it'd be the co-man. Maine, but here we are. A great spot for those two guys.

And we already knew that fight was happening. We already knew Corey Sanagan-Marie Patis was happening. That's also bad booking. What is? Patty versus Benoit Sandini in this spot. I thought you should do Patty versus Connor because Barry the old man to get

James Cameron is at the MVP fights with the shit is going on. I mean, also Carmer Electra is still doing quite well for herself. She's got to be like six. James Jim big Jim at the whatever sorry uh was I saying oh I thought you should do Patty Connor you know that seemed to make sense to me but if the other ideas are we're going to put Patty as the co-main event and people who don't really watch them anymore but are Connor people

they can be exposed to Patty I mean that fight at least can be competitive but I think the large likelihood is that BSD is going to big bank the shit out of Patty Pimbley. And so you're kind of like killing him off on into the, under the biggest, you know, viewership you will have this year or second, probably why I also will be better,

but maybe not. I'm not really sure. So I just, that feels like a weird fight to put in this situation instead of getting Patty a walkover. But I guess if Patty wins, it will be big and special, but that's a big gamble.

Yeah. I already have a bet on Ben Moss. That's a D. I got him at minus 175, like two and a half hours ago. I can only assume that. has moved more towards BSD. So I jumped all over.

The second I saw it, I was like, ooh, I sent a text message. I'm like, go ahead and do that. Because we're going to take that. I mean, look, it's not as bad as the main event, but BSD is, I'll be a little surprised if he doesn't just boss hog the shit out of him. Really fun fight, though. Yeah, I like the fight. I really like that fight.

I think this quite fun just feels weird, emotionally 100%. Corey Sending and Mario Batista we already knew about. We know some other fights that we just I'll run through the ones that we already knew about. Cody Garberate Adrianianas. We reported that one. Damien Pina, Seizra Almeida, we knew about.

And the rest, Brandon Roy Valle versus Lottie Kavanaugh. Great fight. This is absolutely the fight that should have been made at 125 pounds. Robert Whitaker and Nikita Krylov. Yeah, great fight though. Yeah. Whitaker Krylov, not a, again, one of those like not a really great kept secret but one that we had a way for the UFC to announce before we could be like yeah that's happening Luke Riley versus Kai

Kamaka the third on this card that's gonna be fun yeah that will be a fun fight Tracy Cortez versus all of these are fun all right Tong O'Day Osborne versus Cody Durdon takes place on this card but we're wondering the mystery was solved Jed who is Gable steveson gonna fight in his his UFC debut. Of course, he's going to be wrestling at RAF two weeks from tonight. The beauty vote RIF is that event will already be like over. Gable would have already beat Alexander Ramanov. But he's taking on Alicia Ellison in this matchup.

And yeah, it's about what I expected. Somebody of that ilk who's just going to go in there and do his job. And his job on July 11th, 2026. at Team Mobile Arena is to get run the F over by Gable Steven. And I feel like he'll do that job quite well. Seems pretty likely. You know, I mean, will he do it as well as Felipe Linz did? Who can say?

But probably, yes. So, but I, look, I think that's great matchmaking. I still think Gable Steven, he's obviously a tremendous prospect, but I would be hesitant to rush him too quickly. it might work out. It also might not. And there is no reason to shoot him up the ladder. Let's let him sharpen his teeth and figure out how to wrestle a little bit or how to fight a little bit before we go all the way in.

Oh yeah. This is this is exactly what they should have been doing. Like it's him. Then you give him Max Jimenez next after Max probably loses his next fight. And on and all we go. We just feed him the lowest ranked dude at the time. and if he had already fought the lowest ranked dude, then you give him the next lowest rank guy.

And you do that like five times. You're in no rush with Gable. You're truly in no rush. Anytime you're ready to strap the rockets to that man, you can. You can break that glass in case of emergency and strap them. Strap them right on it, and he's good to go. We're about to go, baby. We are about to go.

So before we go, Jed, with what we have on paper with these 11 fights, rate the lineup as of right now. two stars i mean you can give it three just because connor mcgregor is such an event but the overall quality of the fights is quite good again the main event is a murder so whatever um but the rest of the fights are quite good even if it's a kind of mcgregor fight card so you're going to lack name value you got a few not saying you got none right but you don't have to stack this up with multiple title fights eat when you've got a conan mcgregor fight that is it's own reward so yeah um you know two stars three if you were a real big connor mggerger fan because

might be one of the last times you get to see him yeah it's a good score uh johnny yes it is welter right it will be a weltery fight is officially a weltery fight so thanks johnny appreciate you and i know probably a lot of you have other questions and comments and and look we'd love to get to all of them but we can't right now we will later we just not right now we just can't write the second but something tells me something tells me my friends we're not going to be gone for very long because I don't think this fight is going to last very long between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carrado

I don't think we're going to get to minute two if we're being honest and we'll react to I'll take the overall minute two I think it's the end of the first round I'm going to stick with that but let's go they better walk okay we'll talk MVP MMA

we'll briefly talk UFC Vegas 117 which again not dogging on the card if you have questions if you have questions We'll talk. If you want to talk UFC Vegas 117, bring that dunk a nice coffee money, you know what I'm saying? Because I have feeling all the headlines

are going to be on the MVP card. But we'll talk soon, probably through the next 30 to 45 minutes at the latest. And if you're on the pod network, just go back to the go-to-show thing and download the post show as well. For Jed, I am Mike.

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