UFC 329’s Max Holloway forced to train for Conor McGregor rematch without a contract — ‘It sucks’

Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is already in training camp for his rematch against former two-division titleholder Conor McGregor, expected for the UFC 329 main event at the end of International Fight Week this July at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

There’s just one little hiccup.

Holloway does not yet have a contract to fight “Notorious” and based on all the false starts and empty promises from the wishy-washy Irishman, there’s no guarantee that “Blessed” will be competing. And as we

saw from poor Michael Chandler, sitting around and waiting for the payoff is a dead end street.

“I mean, it’s just, it sucks,“ Holloway told UFC on Paramount+. “Because, you know, it’s, of course, you don’t have nothing signed or whatever. So training camp is like, it looks like a regular training camp without a contract. My head space is good, it’s straight. I kinda know when I fight. We kinda know where we want to fight, why we want to fight; so, just getting in the gym, getting there, getting it done.“

The 34-year-old Holloway lost a unanimous decision to McGregor, now 37, when both combatants were still competing at featherweight, a battle of up-and-coming prospects on the UFC Fight Night 26: “Shogun vs. Sonnen” card back in summer 2013, long before they became global superstars.

McGregor (22-6) left that contest with a blown ACL.

“I’d love to get him back,” Holloway (27-9) said. “With him having all this talk of coming back and everybody talking about how serious he actually is. It looks like he’s training and taking it and really wanting to come back to fight. It’s exciting. He looks super hungry. He just did a boxing exhibition not too long ago so that was pretty cool to see him. I would just like to get one back. It’s a huge fight. Anything with Conor McGregor is huge but having history with the dude, being able to get one back would be cool.”

Both fighters are coming off losses but McGregor is a sizable underdog based on his five-year absence. In addition, he wasn’t looking that great prior to his departure and Holloway has racked up five wins during that span, which includes victories over lightweight bruisers Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje.

Hopefully the promotion can get the deal done in time for UFC 329, for Holloway’s sake.