UFC 329: McGregor vs Holloway 2 - Jul 11 🇺🇸

[wandshogun09]

Here we go. Suppose we better get talking about this, it’s fast approaching. Off to Vegas. And this is on Box Office for us. Settle in. Maybe get a brew and something to eat, this is gonna be a long one…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Conor McGregor vs Max Holloway 

Benoit Saint Denis vs Paddy Pimblett 

Cory Sandhagen vs Mario Bautista 

Brandon Royval vs Lone’er Kavanagh 

King Green vs Terrance McKinney 

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS 
Nikita Krylov vs Robert Whittaker 

Gable Steveson vs Elisha Ellison 

Cody Garbrandt vs Adrian Yanez 

Kai Kamaka III vs Luke Riley 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Tracy Cortez vs Wang Cong

Damian Pinas vs Cesar Almeida 

Farid Basharat vs John Garza 

Zach Reese vs Ryan Gandra 

Cody Durden vs Alessandro Costa  

 

OK then. Mixed feelings on this. It’s unquestionably a big card. They’ve loaded it up pretty good. But it’s probably gonna be the ultimate all time hate watch for me with McGregor, Pimblett and Steveson all on there. Seriously, it’s 2026 UFC all over that one of their biggest shows of the year features two rapists in high profile fights, one of them fucking headlining. Also, AI McGregor on the poster is killing me. Could this company be any lazier? And yeah, Box Office for us. You knew it was coming. I’m not paying a penny for this though. I feel grubby enough that I’m gonna watch it at all, no way I’m actually contributing money towards it. It’s only a couple of weeks away now but I can still see McGregor dropping out at the last minute. He’s just been such a colossal fuck up of a shambles of a failure of a man for so long. 

 

Conor McGregor vs Max Holloway 2 then. Five rounds at Welterweight. Where do you even start with this? Does it even happen? I’m probably wasting my time even doing a post for this because who trusts McGregor to show up in 2026? And to be honest I’d rather he didn’t anyway. Could quite happily go the rest of my life without ever seeing, hearing or reading about him again. On the plus side, if there is a positive to this, hopefully Max absolutely dismantles the prick. As much as I’d rather not see McGregor in there again, I recognise that a win here would be great for Max. Not in terms of being an actual legit impressive win or anything. Beating 2026 McGregor means fuck all really. But at this stage in Max’s career, coming off a bad loss, this would be a nice way for him to bounce back in a high profile fight that’s gonna have a lot of eyes on it.

July 2021. The last time we saw McGregor in the Octagon it ended like this. After a competitive opening round against Dustin Poirier in their trilogy decider at UFC 264, Conor’s leg buckled underneath him and that was that. Broken tibia, the fight was stopped at the end of the first round and Poirier was declared the winner by TKO via doctor stoppage. And make sure you remember to call it that. I still vividly remember Conor sat there after the fight, a broken man, desperately screaming “DOCTOR STOPPAGE! DOCTOR STOPPAGE! TELL HIM, DOCTOR STOPPAGE!” at the referee. Like that would be some kind of moral victory. It was as pathetic as it was funny. I haven’t seen the fight since around the time it happened but, while McGregor had his moments and did land some good shots, I don’t recall him looking very good on the whole. The way it ended though, gave the McGregor fans the angle/excuse they always need to claim he would’ve won if not for the injury. Usually I’d feel bad for a fighter suffering an injury like that but I felt not a single bit of sympathy for this cretin. Especially the way he’d gone on in the buildup and post-fight, bringing Poirier’s wife into it and stuff.

As has been a pattern throughout his career, McGregor didn’t deal with the loss well at all. If you remember, after the loss to Khabib in 2018, he never fought for over a year after and went on a bad downward spiral. That’s the period when all those stories came out, him punching the old man, giving some Irish gangster’s Dad a smack in a pub etc. And the worst of it all obviously, December that year is when those first rape allegations came from, which we now know was the Nikita Hand case. I’m not saying these incidents were all because of the Khabib loss, but it does seem to be the case that whenever he’s coming off a loss and then has a bunch of downtime, bad shit happens. It’s like he feels embarrassed and then feels the need to lash out and be the ultimate bully outside the cage, in some pathetic attempt to make up for his shortcomings in the cage.

That last loss to Poirier in their third fight was only made worse by the leg break as well. He was now forced to sit on the sidelines and be inactive whether he liked it or not. Imagine that? A rapist having to do something against his will for a change. And like before, in the aftermath of that loss, a bunch of stories started popping up again.

In September 2021, he was at the MTV Awards for some reason, mostly still on crutches, and somehow managed to find himself trying to fight Machine Gun Kelly. How? Why? Apparently he lunged at MGK and Megan Fox and threw a drink at them or something. There were conflicting reports on what went down but one version I remember at the time was that Conor wanted a picture with them and MGK declined. The only thing more fragile than Conor’s leg at the time would’ve been his ego so that sounds plausible to me. Twat. Just a month later in October, there were reports that Conor had attacked an Italian singer at a party in Rome. According to the guy’s wife, her husband was bloody and Conor had to be restrained. In November it came out that Conor’s old best pal Artem Lobov was suing him over claims he came up with the idea for the branding of Conor’s Proper Twelve whiskey or some shite. I’m probably forgetting a bunch of other stuff as well. There always seemed to be something negative or straight up disturbing going on with him.

Weirdo. Creep. Wrong ‘un.

By early 2023, the stories were getting darker again. A woman who’d been on his yacht claimed he attacked her, threatened to drown her and she actually had to jump overboard to escape. Nothing more came of it but, from what I read at the time, she said she filed a report with the police and the next day her car got set on fire. Yeah. That’ll be why those accusations went nowhere. Then in June 2023…

The “real Conor McGregor” was back. This was at a NBA Basketball game and he’d already made a massive tit of himself for punching the mascot and legitimately injuring him. It was obviously a planned bit but it’s a sodding mascot in a big furry suit. You’d think Conor would’ve known the score, pulled his punch and worked with the guy. No. Instead he walloped him. Guess he was just that desperate to get a ‘win’ it had been so long. But then those sexual assault allegations came out from the same night. I don’t know what happened with that story. I’ve lost track at this point. But whether there was actually any fire there or not, there’s been a lot of smoke over the years when it comes to McGregor and forcing himself on women.

Didn’t stop MMA media just turning a blind eye to it all though and carrying on as if nothing was happening. Ariel Helwani was, and still is, one of the very worst for this. He’d talk and tweet and retweet you to death about the latest McGregor quote or comeback teases. All while completely ignoring and no-selling all the vile shit going on with him. And at the same time as all this was going on, rape allegations the lot, the UFC were just casually cracking on with a season of The Ultimate Fighter, coached by McGregor and Michael Chandler.

Conor’s comeback had been talked about for a bit and Chandler was the most common name popping up as his likely opponent. But I was always sceptical the comeback talk was real. McGregor always seemed to start talking about fighting again when there were bad stories about him in the news, like he was trying to distract everyone. The Chandler fight just kept getting delayed and stalled and Chandler just kept waiting and begging for the fight. It was embarrassing really. Putting your career on hold in your late 30s, and relying on a junkie rapist to get his shit together? Seems like a sound career plan. It didn’t help that around this time, when Conor was supposed to be gearing up for his big return, every time he appeared in public he looked off his face.

The absolute state. Remember when “I stay ready so I don’t have to get ready” was one of McGregor’s big mottos? Those days have been long gone for some time. There was a spell when literally every time you saw him, he looked completely smashed. This was in and around the time they were filming TUF, when he should’ve been getting back in the USADA testing pool and starting to put together his training camp for the Chandler fight. He didn’t look like he’d be fighting any fucker for the foreseeable future, not professionally anyway. What always made me laugh about this was that every time he’d pop up looking hammered, people would take the piss out of him and his fans would jump to his defence and go ‘What, so he’s not allowed to have fun and enjoy himself?’ As if he wasn’t bladdered every time he was on camera. No. If you’re supposed to be making “the greatest comeback in combat sports history” like Conor was claiming at the time, then no, you probably should lay off the booze and coke for a bit and get back in the gym.

Anyway, they did go ahead and film TUF and McGregor vs Chandler was finally officially announced to headline UFC 303 in June 2024. They put a poster out, tickets went on sale, Dana was bragging about it being the biggest gate they’d ever done and all that. Then as the fight got close, things got a bit weird. The press conference got scrapped and everyone, from Dana to McGregor to Chandler, went mysteriously quiet. Then about two weeks out from the show, news finally broke that McGregor was out with a broken toe. Hilarious that after giving so many other fighters shit over the years for ‘faking’ injuries and basically calling the likes of Aldo and Dos Anjos cowards for pulling out with much worse injuries, Conor was now pulling out with a sore toe.

It’s been two years since then and there was nothing until now on him fighting again. I guess he’s been busy outside the cage though. Finding religion (Ha!), running for presidency of Ireland (HAHAHA!) and most importantly, in November 2024, he was found liable in court for the 2018 rape of Nikita Hand.

A full conviction with jail time would’ve obviously been better but it was a civil case. I followed it as best I could at the time when they were in court and I was so happy with the verdict. Maybe ‘happy’ is the wrong word to use given the circumstances but I was happy Nikita Hand got some level of justice at least. The judge and jury found him guilty, then he tried to appeal and in July 2025 he lost the appeal and it was dismissed on all grounds. Hopefully she can take some comfort in that. Hasn’t stopped his brain dead, weirdo, woman hating fans from still defending him and calling her a liar though. Seriously, as someone who was a huge McGregor fan myself for a few years, if you’re still a fan of him in 2026 you’re a massive cunt. No ifs or buts. How low do you have to be to still like this scumbag? All thick as mince as well. A lot of them seem to have somehow convinced themselves that the whole Nikita Hand case was cooked up to derail McGregor’s plans to become President of Ireland. To silence him. How dumb can you be? For one, he was never ever ever gonna be President anyway. The only people who think he had a chance mostly seem to be Americans who have no idea how the process works in Ireland. And two, the Nikita Hand case goes back to 2018. Literally years before McGregor ever started talking politics or presidential aspirations. It was all bollocks and, I suspect, yet again another attempt to distract everyone from his rapey headlines.

In 2025 it was announced that he’d accepted an 18 month ban by the UFC’s anti-doping board. And when you see pics like this…

…it was no secret he’d been on the gas in his time away since 2021. It was common knowledge that he’d got on something to heal from the leg injury. And he wasn’t gonna be active for a while so whatever. But the size of him there, that’s not all about just rehabbing the leg is it? I do think it’s partly why it’s taken so long for him to come back. Among other factors, of course. The PEDs being one. The injury itself being another. Obviously all his legal issues were a major part of it. And also, I do think the UFC weren’t in any rush to get him back in there. By all accounts he only has two fights left on his current UFC contract. I don’t think they wanted him finishing that deal and possibly walking before the negotiations for the new TV deal. They wanted to keep him on the books as a bargaining chip. Of course, now that’s done, they’re locked into a monster $7.7 billion deal with Paramount and all of a sudden, McGregor’s fighting again? How convenient.

I suppose I better touch on the fight itself. It had been rumoured for a while but was finally made official in May. Funnily enough, Dana dropped the news while the Rousey vs Carano card was playing out live on Netflix. And more specifically, from what I read, he actually made the announcement just as Francis Ngannou was walking out for his fight. Purely coincidental I’m sure. He’d never be petty like that. Anyway, the rematch is on.

Yeah. These two crossed paths back in August 2013 in Boston. It was a big card at the time, in the thick of the FOX deal and this was the first UFC show to air on FOX Sports 1. It was quite a lineup, especially considering it wasn’t a PPV. Shogun Rua vs Chael Sonnen was headlining and you had the likes of Alistair Overeem and Urijah Faber in featured bouts on the main card. It doesn’t look mega stacked looking back at the card with 2026 eyes but, at the time, this was considered pretty loaded for a Fight Night. But even with the big names mentioned above, the fight that had everyone talking going in was on the prelims. McGregor and Holloway were young in their UFC careers at the time. Holloway was only 21 years old and was 3-2 in the UFC. McGregor was 25 and this was just his second Octagon appearance. But even after just one fight in the UFC, the hype on McGregor was already insane. I remember them making a pretty big thing of showing McGregor’s walkout on the live broadcast, and giving him the ‘lights out’ treatment which only main eventers usually got. All this for a prelim fight. Make no mistake, the UFC brass saw big things in McGregor and they were ready to strap a promotional rocket to his arse with a win over Holloway.

McGregor did come through with the win but it wasn’t ideal. Haven’t seen the fight in donkeys years but from memory he won fairly comfortably on points, but also bollocksed his ACL in the process. An injury which sidelined him for almost a year at a time when the UFC were looking to push him to the moon. I remember him uncharacteristically going the takedown route a lot in the fight, no doubt because his knee was knackered. I’ll probably revisit the fight and review it in here before the rematch but, regardless, I don’t think it’s really relevant to this rematch. For one, Max was green as grass back then. It was 13 years ago. The rematch is two weight classes higher. And McGregor’s been out five years. It’s a completely different fight to me.

Obviously, McGregor went on to unprecedented heights in his career over the next few years. The Mendes fight, the mad 13 second KO over Jose Aldo to win the title, the fights with Nate Diaz up at 170, winning a second division’s title at Lightweight with probably his career best performance against Eddie Alvarez. Looking back at that run, the Mayweather fight and, probably more importantly, the mental payday that came with it, seems like it was the beginning of the end for him. There was only one way to go from there, down, and I think the combination of sudden generational wealth and a feeling that he couldn’t be touched anymore was a recipe for the series of disasters we’ve seen in the near decade since. Money and fame isn’t for everyone and it’s clear a cunt like McGregor can’t handle any of it. Surprised he’s not dead by now, to be honest. 

Max Holloway has gone on to have a hell of a career since that first McGregor fight all those years ago. He always had potential, even back then, but I don’t really think anyone at the time would’ve predicted that he’d go on to become one of the best Featherweights in UFC history and also one of the most popular and universally loved fighters in the game. He’s a treasure to the sport. I’ve loved watching him over the years. It’s fighters like him that keep me going when so much of the sport and the shite surrounding it has become a turn off. At 34 years old now, Max has gone from boy to man since him and McGregor last stood across the Octagon from each other. It was after that loss that Holloway really seemed to turn the corner and go on his best run. He won 13 straight fights in a row after that McGregor fight. Included in that streak were wins over Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira (by injury), Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo in back-to-back title fights and he put an absolutely savage beatdown on Brian Ortega. He had some losses scattered around after that but still managed wins over the likes of Frankie Edgar, Calvin Kattar, Yair Rodriguez in a FOTY contender, Arnold Allen and a one punch faceplant KO over the Korean Zombie. And speaking of faceplants, the one over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 will live with me forever…

I think I’ve posted some version of this picture in every Holloway fight preview since and I’ll probably continue to until he retires. Maybe the greatest knockout in UFC history. One second to go in the fight. One of those moments I’ll never forget as a fan. And it’s a win that’s aged beautifully now with Gaethje unexpectedly going on to derail Ilia Topuria and become champ. It’s been mixed results since for Max though and I think it’s clear that he’s not at his peak anymore. To be expected. He started young, he’s 34 now and he’s been in so many hard fights, long fights, he’s near the top of the list for fighters with most cage time etc. He’s got a ton of miles on the clock for a youngish man. It’s why I disagree when fans talk about a fighter’s prime and tie it all into age. A lot of fighters are just entering their prime at 34. Max had already arguably peaked at 30/31. He’s still very good. There’s a difference between being out of your prime and being washed up. But I do think his best years are behind him.

The Oliveira rematch in March was a bit of a disaster for Holloway. I made no attempt to hide my obsession and excitement for this matchup going in. Banged on about wanting to see it for years. Turned out to be complete one way traffic in Oliveira’s favour. Nothing like the sure-fire barnburner I was expecting. Oliveira clearly recognised that Max was lacking something in the grappling and he exploited it to the fullest. Really frustrating to watch but I put that on Max. Can’t really fault Charles for taking advantage of Max’s weakness. Why have a war when you don’t have to? But yeah, Max could really do with a strong rebound here.

Urgh.

Conor’s been doing the media rounds a little bit since the fight was announced. He was on Helwani’s show, of course. I guess Helwani’s ignoring of the rape stuff over the years and giving his full throated support paid off for him. Hope the big ‘scoop’ of getting McGregor on your show was worth it you fucking weasel. Seriously, I’ve been souring on Helwani for years but he’s shown himself to be an absolute hypocrite and a cunt in recent years. Talks like he’s on some moral high ground and can’t do any wrong yet he’s publicly and proudly supporting and platforming a rapist in return for views, access etc. Jimmy Fallon also got a fair amount of criticism from what I’ve seen for having McGregor on his show recently. I’m fully aware there’ll be no actual meaningful consequences stemming from the bit of backlash but I was pleasantly surprised to see so many rightly calling it out all the same.

McGregor’s been waffling loads of old cobblers as usual…

“He’s not on my level. Skills-wise, mental-wise, physical-wise…speed, power, IQ, fitness, health, freshness. It’s gonna be a demolition. It’s gonna be an absolute demolition. I know with the damage he has taken, I just have to touch him. After that, it will be clinical. To win alone is not enough, it must be spectacular. And that it will be.”

OK.

“He’s never fought at 170 pounds. This is a 170 pound bout. I have gone from the smaller weights up to 170, and it takes adjusting.”

First off, I’ve seen a lot of McGregor arse lickers going ‘Man, you have to give him credit. Taking a fight with Max after five years out is such a badass thing to do’. Is it though? Really? Yeah fighting Max at any time is a challenge. But it’s not really a badass move when he’s making Max come up to 170 for it, is it? Let’s have it right, he’s making Max come up in weight because he probably can’t make 155 anymore after years of juicing. Real badass stuff there. Also, Conor talks like he’s some proven top level 170lber. He’s only 2-1 at Welterweight. One of the wins was over a Donald Cerrone who was already coming off two losses at that point and never won a fight again in his career after. And he won one and lost one against Nate Diaz. That’s it. And even then, both were blown up Lightweights. 

“I feel a lot more fresher than these opponents. I’ve had my time to rest. I feel I’m coming into my prime now.”

Ha! Jesus wept. Rest. Rest. That’s what he’s been doing, is it? Raping, drinking, sniffing, roiding, court cases and legal problems out the arse. Rest. And “coming into his prime” at 37 years old, after a five year layoff, when he hasn’t won a fight since 2020 and he had to have a metal rod put in his leg. Yeah, clearly a man whose best years are definitely ahead of him!

This is the worst one…

“I forgive myself for disgracing the position that God put me in, which I’ve done many times, and I won’t do it again.”

Forgives himself for rape. That’s very big of him.

I’ll wrap this up here. Needless to say, I really hope Max fucking obliterates this waste of oxygen. Like, to the point he completely shuts him down and busts him up methodically, then ideally knocks him unconscious like he did to Gaethje. Something where there can be no cries of fluke and it pretty much ends McGregor’s career. Not sure it goes that way, that’s just best case scenario stuff for me. I’m almost scared to make a prediction now because my recent ones haven’t gone well, but I do think Max should win. Even with coming up in weight, there’s no way McGregor is anywhere close to prime form anymore. And while it’s at 170, McGregor isn’t a proper Welterweight really is he? He’s a bloated mess. If Max can take this past a round or two, with the pace and volume he puts out, I think McGregor gasses and wilts under the pressure and most likely gets stopped by an accumulation of strikes. McGregor is probably gonna be dangerous early and Max can be got to, which is always a worry. But he really shouldn’t be losing to 2026 McGregor. It’s funny, I kind of forgot just how delusional McGregor fans are. Even now, a decade past his peak. I can honestly say I’ve seen way more people picking McGregor to win than Max since the fight was announced. It’s been like 70/30 in favour of Conor. A lot of it seems to be based on how bad Max looked against Oliveira but I find it hilarious how Max’s decline apparently counts for so much and is being held against him but McGregor being out half a decade after a bad injury, and ravaging his body with all kinds of alcohol, sniff and PEDs is seemingly no big deal. It’s the old classic from McGregor fans. Act like he’s invincible going in, ‘he’s motivated, he’s sharp, the layoff won’t matter, he’s so dialled in, that left hand…’ etc etc. Then when he loses it’ll be ‘he wasn’t motivated, he was rusty, if the real Conor showed up…’ and so on. Hope Max brutally ends the prick and he never fights again.

 

Benoit Saint Denis vs Paddy Pimblett is our co-main event. I like it. Not sure if it’s scheduled for three or five rounds but I can’t see it going the distance anyway, to be honest. I’ve made no secret that I’m not a fan of Paddy and I’ve got my opinions on the way the UFC have clearly given him favourable treatment for most of his UFC run. But fair’s fair, I can’t criticise either the UFC for booking this fight, or Paddy himself for accepting it. With Paddy coming off the loss to Gaethje, I was half expecting the UFC to try to rebuild him with a bit of a soft rebound fight. This definitely isn’t that.

Saint Denis is no world beater but he’s a hard bastard, he’s dangerous and he goes for the kill. He’s ranked #5 in the Lightweight rankings as I type this and I’d say that’s probably about right. I don’t see him getting much higher or ever holding UFC gold or anything but he’s good enough to hang around in the Top 10. He’s 30 years old now and 17-3-0-1 with all his wins coming inside the distance. He hit that rough patch in 2024 with the back-to-back losses to Poirier and Moicano but he’s since rattled off four straight wins and has stopped Mauricio Ruffy, Beneil Dariush and Dan Hooker in his last three. Not bad at all.

That’s how we last saw Paddy. He lost on points to Gaethje in January and got pretty banged up in the process. Always happy to see him lose but it was a little bit of an anti-climax in a way. The way the UFC built Paddy up, the weak opposition early, the robbery against Jared Gordon, feeding him a washed up Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler, just placing him at #5 in the rankings despite him not beating one ranked opponent, so they could justify giving him the interim title shot against Gaethje. With all that taken into account, I was looking forward to the eventual and inevitable bubble bursting comeuppance. I hoped it’d be Topuria wasting him but, yeah, it’s all gone wonky. I still don’t think Paddy’s anything special. And I don’t really see much in the way of improvements in his game since the Cage Warriors days. He looks bigger physically, that’s about it. His striking is still awful and his defence is shite. I didn’t think Gaethje looked great that night, and there was talk that he had staph going in, yet he still beat Paddy. Mad that Gaethje then had the best performance of his career against Topuria six months later. But yeah, I’m hoping BSD beats Paddy down here. Sad state of affairs when I’ve gotta root for France over England but here we are.

 

Cory Sandhagen vs Mario Bautista 2 is an interesting one. Another rematch but, I’ll be honest, when I first saw this fight was booked I didn’t even remember that they’d fought before. It wasn’t until right now looking at both guys records for this post that I realised this is a rematch. I definitely know I would’ve seen the first fight at the time as well but I’ve got no recollection of it.

First fight went down back in January 2019 on the very first card of the UFC’s ESPN deal. So yeah, there’s no way I missed that card. I must’ve seen this fight. Sandhagen won via armbar in the first round apparently. I’ll most likely do my rewatch and review thing to refresh my shot memory. Sandhagen’s had a very solid run in the UFC since then. Notable wins over John Lineker, Raphael Assuncao, Marlon Moraes, that stunning flying knee KO over Frankie Edgar, Song Yadong, Chito Vera, Rob Font and Figgy. It’s been that next level he’s struggled with. The tippy top, elite level of Bantamweight. The Aljos, Dillashaws, Yans, Umars and Merabs of the world. Bautista’s 17-3 and coming off a sweet submission win over Vinicius Oliveira in February. It was a slow burn with him for ages but in the last couple of years he’s bagged wins over Jose Aldo and Patchy Mix. Although, granted, there are asterisks and neither of those two were anywhere close their best when Bautista beat them. I think Bautista is a really solid fighter though. He’s got skills, he’s not easy to look good against and he’s a tad under-appreciated in my opinion. I’d be surprised if Sandhagen can get him out of there early this time. 2026 Bautista is a different kind of test than the 2019 version. I like this fight. 

 

Brandon Royval vs Lone’er Kavanagh is gonna have to be ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this fucker. Love this fight. Even on a pretty loaded card like this, it’s a fight that instantly jumped off the page and stood out to me. They could’ve easily headlined a Fight Night with this. In a way I wish they did so we’d have got a five rounder out of it. But I like it as a three rounder on a card like this as well. Really adds some quality to the undercard.

Royval’s been hovering around at the top end of the Flyweight division for years now. A really good fighter who, unfortunately for him, just happened to come along at the same time as one of the best Flyweights of all time in Alexandre Pantoja. Royval’s 0-2 against him. He’s also gone 2-3 in his last five. Not ideal but you look at who he fought in that five fight stretch - Pantoja, Moreno, Taira, Van, Kape - going 2-3 doesn’t seem so bad. He badly needs a win here though. He’s coming into this fight off those back-to-back losses to Van and Kape, and Kape put him away in the first round back in December. Royval turns 34 in August. Not an old man by any means but he’s pretty long in the tooth for a Flyweight. Not like he’s washed up but his days of competing at the very top level have to be on borrowed time.

London’s Kavanagh is riding high here. He’s 27 years old and 10-1 with 5 finishes. Suffered his first setback last August when he got knocked out by Charles Johnson in a bit of a surprising result. But he responded to that first defeat just about as well as anyone could’ve expected by stepping in on short notice against former champ Brandon Moreno in February, on Moreno’s home turf in Mexico, at high altitude when he hadn’t had time to properly prepare for it, and he beat Moreno by decision in impressive fashion. I said at the time going into that fight that I had serious doubts that Kavanagh was making the right move. But he looked great. It was one of those performances that gave you an idea of what he’s made of, the way he responded coming off that first loss plus, on paper, everything seemed to be stacked against him going into that Moreno fight and he still came through with the win. Still room for improvement and, in fairness, it wasn’t prime Moreno he beat either. But under the far from ideal circumstances, it was a tremendous performance from Kavanagh and by far the biggest win of his career to date. Him and Royval could make for an incredible fight if they both come in firing on all cylinders.

 

King Green vs Terrance McKinney is currently scheduled to kick off the main card. Things could change and with bout orders they often do. There are fights on the prelims which would seem to fit better here but whatever. They’re scattering fights around and the running orders have all looked a bit funny to me since the Paramount deal started. But with all that said, I’d say Green vs McKinney is a pretty safe bet to be an entertaining fight for however long it lasts. Green’s 39 years old now, he turns 40 in September, and this’ll be his 55th pro fight. Record of 35-17-1-1. Crazy longevity really for a lighter weight class fighter. And while he’s certainly past his best, he’s actually coming off three straight wins here over Lance Gibson Jr, Daniel Zellhuber and Jeremy Stephens. And McKinney’s the embodiment of the phrase ‘kill or be killed’ when it comes to MMA. He’s got a record of 18-8 and, win or lose, he’s never gone to a decision. Not only that, of his 26 career fights, 22 of them didn’t even make it out of the first round and a bunch of them were done in less than a minute! He’s coming into this fight fresh off a 24 second TKO over Kyle Nelson on the Seattle show back in March. He’s never gonna amount to much but, Christ, there’s never a dull moment.

 

Nikita Krylov vs Robert Whittaker as a matchup isn’t doing much for me in itself really. Where the interest comes in this one is that Whittaker’s moving up to Light Heavyweight. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I like the move. I just don’t feel like he’s gonna be big enough for 205. I kind of get why he’s going this route because he’s been floundering a bit at 185 in recent fights. His last two fights were the brutal face crushing loss to Khamzat, then the points loss against De Ridder. And at 35, I certainly see the logic in sacking off the weight cut and moving up to a fresh division. I just don’t feel like he’s gonna have the size though. Hope I’m wrong and he goes on a tear because I do like Whittaker. But I don’t have a great feeling about it. Changing weight class isn’t always the answer. Never been fully sold on Krylov though. He stopped Modestas Bukauskas late in their fight in January but was coming off a couple of first round knockout losses before that. He’s 34 years old with 40 plus fights under his belt, so this is his lot. He’s not gonna get any better at this stage. Yeah, this is one of them fights where, purely on skills, I think Whittaker smokes him. But I don’t know. There’s something about Whittaker at 205 that just isn’t doing it for me. Even if he wins this fight, I don’t see it ending well in the long run. Won’t be surprised if he wins and goes back to 185 anyway though, if Strickland’s still champion. Strickland’s one of the only fresh name fights for Whittaker at 185 and vice versa. I could still see that one happening.

 

Gable Steveson vs Elisha Ellison. OK, this is a weird one. It’s Steveson’s UFC debut and is probably gonna be one of the main talking points of the card by the time fight week rolls around but, on paper, it’s basically a squash match. Or at least it should be if Steveson’s half the prospect people are talking him up to be.

The good stuff first. He’s 26 years old, practically a baby by Heavyweight MMA standards, and he’s an Olympic gold medalist and NCAA Division I wrestler. Made his MMA debut in September, he’s already 3-0 and all were first round finishes. Also has a 15 second knockout on a Dirty Boxing card back in October. And now he’s making his UFC debut. Not a bad start, right? Sadly he’s on the right card with it being a McGregor show, because Steveson is also a sexual predator.

In 2019, him and a wrestler buddy teammate were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. They ended up not facing criminal charges due to a loophole in Minnesota law, which said that a person couldn’t be charged with rape or sexual assault if the victim was “willingly intoxicated”. I’m not making this shit up. That’s why he wasn’t convicted. Because of a loophole. A loophole which Minnesota later closed as a direct result of this case because it was obviously so fucked up. He should’ve went to jail. He only got off on a technicality. And surprise, surprise, he’s now training with and has become friends with Jon Jones. I guess abusers of a feather flock together. Helwani’s also been hyping him up and ignoring his past. Ariel’s down with the deviants. I don’t care how promising he is or how much of a boost he’d give the struggling Heavyweight division, I can’t root for a cunt like this. I hope his career crashes and burns and amounts to sod all. Just like his brief attempts in WWE and the NFL fizzled out. I hope this is another thing he fails at. Fuck him. Ellison is 5-2 and got chinned in less than two minutes by Brando Pericic on the Perth card in September. We all know exactly what this is. He’s been brought in as a sacrificial lamb for ‘Loophole’ Gable to roll over. I’d love to see it go up in smoke and Ellison clobbers him.

 

Cody Garbrandt vs Adrian Yanez is alright. Neither are what they once were but, if nothing else, it shouldn’t be boring. It’s hard to believe Garbrandt was once a UFC champion when you look at his trajectory since. That title win over Dominick Cruz will be ten years old in December. And some fans still cling to his performance that night and hold out hope for that ‘version’ of him to come back. Never gonna happen though. It’s like he sold his soul to the devil to have one perfect night, one flawless title winning performance, in exchange for mediocrity the rest of his career. He was undefeated going into that Cruz fight, won the title, and he’s gone 4-7 in the decade since, lost the strap in his first defence and was knocked out three times in a row immediately after winning the belt. He’s coming into this fight off a decision win over Xiao Long in March in a foul filled mess of a fight. As for Yanez…

…he’s never reached the heights Garbrandt did and almost certainly never will. But he was looking like one of the hottest up and comers in the Bantamweight division for a short time. He made his UFC debut in 2020 and won his first five fights, four by stoppage and all of them got either POTN or FOTN bonuses. He was genuinely a highlight of any card he appeared on for a while there. Since then though, he’s gone a dismal 1-3-1. Although many felt he got shafted in the draw against Ricky Simon in his last fight in March. I remember I had Yanez winning. I like Yanez and I’ve never liked Garbrandt. So this is a simple babyface vs heel thing for me. I’d love to see Yanez give ‘No Love’ a twatting.

 

Kai Kamaka III vs Luke Riley should be fun. Kamaka The Third is on his second stint in the UFC now. He had a four fight run previously in 2020/21 that lasted less than a year and he fought four times, went 1-2-1 and was let go. He went through Bellator and PFL for a bit with decent results but a loss here and there, then fought in Tuff-N-Uff until finally being given another chance in the UFC back in April. In his return he won a split decision over Dakota Hope at the Apex in what I remember being a really good fight actually. But only probably about twelve and a half people and a dog actually saw it. Not surprised to see Riley land on this card considering he’s Paddy Pimblett’s teammate.

He’s from Liverpool, 26 years old and undefeated at 13-0 with 9 coming by KO/TKO. He generated some buzz in his time in Cage Warriors and got noticed by the UFC last year. Made his Octagon debut on the Qatar card in November, knocking out Bogdan Grad with one of the sweetest left hooks you’ll ever see in MMA. Then he took a decision off Michael Aswell Jr in a decent fight on the London card in March. It’s obviously a fight Riley is supposed to win but I’m expecting it to be exciting however long it lasts.

 

Tracy Cortez vs Wang Cong isn’t really doing much for me, not expecting a great deal from it. Cortez has had a couple of OK wins but she never really gets any better. I don’t mean to be harsh but she’s 32 years old now and has been fighting since 2017, she’s not gonna make any significant progress at this point. She’s 12-3 and coming off a submission loss against Erin Blanchfield on the MSG card in November. And that speaks to my point about her not improving. That was a rematch of their 2019 fight in Invicta, which Cortez won via an iffy split decision. I watched and reviewed that fight in the thread in November and despite her being lucky with the judging, Cortez repeatedly made the mistake of taking Blanchfield, the better grappler, down in that fight and it almost cost her at times. Fast forward to the rematch in Nov and she was still making those same mistakes. But by this point, Blanchfield had improved and was able to catch her in a sub. Sounds mean but Cortez just isn’t very good and it’s pretty obvious that the only reason she gets any hype/attention at all is because of how she looks.

China’s Cong is 34 years old and 9-1 in MMA. Her claim to combat sports fame is that she once beat Valentina Shevchenko in Kickboxing way back in 2015. She’s been quite vocal about Shevchenko recently as well, clearly angling for a rematch but she’s probably never gonna get there. She’s been doing alright in the UFC, 4-1 so far, but it’s all been fairly low level stuff and she’s already taken a loss in a fight she was meant to win. At 34, she’s gotta get a move on if she’s planning to cross paths with Shev again. You’re not getting a title shot off decision wins over the likes of Eduarda Moura and Bruna Brasil.

 

Damian Pinas vs Cesar Almeida. Yeah, a man named Penis and he’s still nowhere near the biggest dick on the card. Get ready for a load of cock jokes. Like the ‘your dong’ thing whenever Song Yadong fights, it’s gonna follow him whatever he does going forward. He’s from Aruba, 24 years old and 9-1, all finishes. Yep, of course Pinas likes to finish. Sorry. He made his UFC debut on the Mexico card in February and made short work of Wes Schultz. Almeida’s 38 years old and 7-2 in MMA. The most noteworthy thing about him is that he fought Alex Pereira three times in their Kickboxing days but he lost the trilogy 1-2 in the end. Still, he did get one win over ‘Poatan’. He’s gone 3-2 in the UFC, the highlight being his brutal knockout over Abdul Razak Alhassan back in January 2025. He lost a decision against Cezary Oleksiejczuk last time out though.

 

Farid Basharat vs John Garza is a bit of a last minute cobbled together thing. Basharat was all set to face Ethyn Ewing on this card, which was one of the highlights of the prelims for me. Unfortunately, Ewing’s out. Garza steps in on less than a week’s notice. Tough first night in for him as well. Basharat’s 28, undefeated at 15-0 and has racked up a 6-0 record in the UFC, including wins over Taylor Lapilus and Chris Gutierrez. Hasn’t been wowing anyone really and he’s been a decision merchant but he’s pretty good and his last fight, a split decision win over Jean Matsumoto in February, was a cracker. Garza, nicknamed ‘Mowgli’, is 23 years old, 6-1 with 4 finishes and he’s on a five fight winning streak. He last fought on a Fury FC card in January and got a TKO in the second round. Sounds a decent signing and I’ve read bits and bobs that he’s meant to be a solid striker. Like I said though, tough assignment for his Octagon debut.

 

Zach Reese vs Ryan Gandra is whatever. Just a making up the numbers prelim. Going through the motions here. Reese is 32 years old with a record of 10-3-0-1 and 8 finishes. He’s actually been on the UFC roster since 2023 and has fought eight times in the promotion but none of it’s been particularly memorable. He’s coming into this fight off a split decision loss to Michel Pereira in February. Brazil’s Gandra is 31 years old and 9-1 with 7 finishes. He’s on an eight fight winning streak, got a first round TKO on DWCS last August, then won his UFC debut with a 41 second stoppage over Jose Medina on the Mexico City card in February.

 

Cody Durden vs Alessandro Costa came together late in the day. Durden was supposed to fight Ode Osbourne but Double O dropped out just a couple of weeks before show time. Costa’s a decent replacement, to be fair. Neither are ever gonna make a splash in the Flyweight rankings but I reckon this’ll be watchable enough. Durden’s 35 with a record of 18-10-1. He’s had a whole bunch of losses in the UFC and was in a four fight losing slump before finally getting a win over Jafel Filho in April. He’s not great and I’ve always thought he seems a dickhead. But I did absolutely love his fight with Jake Hadley back in 2023. If you never saw it, trust me, it’s well worth a watch. Costa’s 30 and 16-5 with 13 finishes. Like Durden, not the most consistent and his UFC stint’s been very up and down. He’s usually in pretty entertaining fights win or lose though. And he is coming into this fight off the back off a couple of stoppage wins over Stewart Nicoll and Matt Schnell.

 

Return of the (rapist) Mac…

Edited July 7 by wandshogun09

[Dai]

A wandy McGregor bio and recap? With a side of Holloway history? Just sorted my Sunday morning reading material!

Edited June 27 by Dai

[jimufctna24]

6 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

The judge and jury found him guilty, then he tried to appeal and in July 2025 he lost the appeal and it was dismissed on all grounds. Hopefully she can take some comfort in that. Hasn’t stopped his brain dead, weirdo, woman hating fans from still defending him and calling her a liar though. Seriously, as someone who was a huge McGregor fan myself for a few years, if you’re still a fan of him in 2026 you’re a massive cunt. No ifs or buts. How low do you have to be to still like this scumbag?

Sadly, a few of these types have made it onto my X timeline somehow. It's notable that the claims I've seen in defence of McGregor, whether true or not (I didn't follow the case closely), don't provide any actual evidence that McGregor is innocent. Rather, they just attack Hand's character. 

6 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

I’m almost scared to make a prediction now because my recent ones haven’t gone well, but I do think Max should win. Even with coming up in weight, there’s no way McGregor is anywhere close to prime form anymore. And while it’s at 170, McGregor isn’t a proper Welterweight really is he? He’s a bloated mess. If Max can take this past a round or two, with the pace and volume he puts out, I think McGregor gasses and wilts under the pressure and most likely gets stopped by an accumulation of strikes. McGregor is probably gonna be dangerous early and Max can be got to, which is always a worry.

Yeah, that's my read too. 

 

Edited June 27 by jimufctna24

[neil]

I couldn't give a monkeys about this Conor fight and honestly...I've stopped watching UFC completely because of all the Trump arse kissing. But given Wand's great writeup I'll drop a hot take...

I don't think Conor was ever really the GOAT. I think without his electric, and yes at that time, fun personality he would be mostly forgotten about at this point. I'll give him the run to the 1st title, but did he ever defend it? Yeah he went up and beat Alvarez which was an impressive performance but I don't really rate Alvarez as "one of the best champs"...as he'd soon find out going up against Khabib.

Everything he's done since the Alvarez fight has been shit...AND THAT IS NEARLY TEN YEARS AGO!

I'm more than likely not giving him enough credit due to him being a massive cunt, but I don't think I'm wildly wrong either.

[Dai]

Don't think anyone actually ever considers him the GOAT, and especially not on this board. Whilst his massive charisma and timing were lightning in a bottle, the run he had was unbelievable at the time. Simply not true to say he would be forgotten about if it wasn't for his personality. And a strange thing remove as well, as whay made alot of his fights memorable were because of his personality. Don't think for any top class fighter you can remove the element of personality when discussing how successful their run was. As for Conor run;

The Brandao performance was excellent, and the crowd reaction to the win was insane. Probably still one of the best crowd reactions of all time.

KO'd a highly rated Poirier in 2 minutes.

Destroyed Seiver, in a 'This guy is a mega star' performance.

Beat Mendes in an epic match, really cementing himself as a huge star.

The Aldo KO, which may be the most famous KO in the UFC history, or second behind the Masvidal one.

The Diaz matches, which were great.

The Alvarez win, which at the time we were all saying was a masterclass by Connor, and clearly his peak performance.

 

Again, no idea how you separate his personality from these fights when personality forms such a large part of memorable experiences, or why that is even a metric that is relevant in any way. 

[Carbomb]

10 hours ago, neil said:

I couldn't give a monkeys about this Conor fight and honestly...I've stopped watching UFC completely because of all the Trump arse kissing. But given Wand's great writeup I'll drop a hot take...

I don't think Conor was ever really the GOAT. I think without his electric, and yes at that time, fun personality he would be mostly forgotten about at this point. I'll give him the run to the 1st title, but did he ever defend it? Yeah he went up and beat Alvarez which was an impressive performance but I don't really rate Alvarez as "one of the best champs"...as he'd soon find out going up against Khabib.

Everything he's done since the Alvarez fight has been shit...AND THAT IS NEARLY TEN YEARS AGO!

I'm more than likely not giving him enough credit due to him being a massive cunt, but I don't think I'm wildly wrong either.

A few months ago, we were talking on here about the Mount Rushmore of lightweight/featherweight, or something like that, and I mentioned that, even if he'd ever been on it, McGregor would have been shoved off it by now by Topuria - even before he's come anywhere close to retiring, Topuria became a two-weight champ in both the divisions while undefeated and, unlike McGregor, defended the 145 belt before moving up. All this before he's 30. 

McGregor's job for the past several years has been to run his mouth to try and con people into thinking he's got anything left to offer anyone at all, let alone fighting.

Edited June 28 by Carbomb
David Speedie

[jimufctna24]

McGregor's ATG case is indeed based on peak more than longevity. 

His run at 145lbs does hold up quite well. The Aldo win is one of the best in MMA history, I rate the Mendes win higher than some on this forum, as despite Mendes coming in on short notice McGregor fought a very smart fight to win that night, chipping away at Mendes with body kicks and weathering Mendes wrestling/ground attack. The win over Poirier was a good win, but it did come against a version of Poirier who was brittle (he was too big to be fighting at 145lbs), and hadn't fully developed as a striker. Add to those wins the win over Alvarez at 155lbs, who while a favourable match-up was a very good fighter who McGregor performed flawlessly against, and those are the high points of McGregor's peak period. 

Since the Alvarez win in 2016, he hasn't had another great win. The Cerrone win was merely a good win. Otherwise he's lost to the 155lbs version of Poirier twice (who was a better fighter than the 145lbs version he faced), and Khabib. I don't really hold the Khabib loss against him, as it was a horrendous style match-up for him, and it's not like peak versions of Poitier or Gaethje fared any better against Khabib. The reasons why McGregor's MMA career faded so quickly are well established; inactivity, lifestyle leading to physical regression, and his power at 145lbs not fully transferring up to higher weight classes (Khabib and Diaz having great chins didn't help either). I've also felt for years that he was a bit fortunate not to have to deal with peak Holloway at 145lbs, who I believe would have given him fits. 

How high do his impressive peak years (2014-2016) get him on the ATG list? I'm genuinely not sure. He's not in GOAT contention, that is for sure. Top 5 would seem very generous too. Perhaps somewhere around 10-15? 

Edited June 28 by jimufctna24

[wandshogun09]

On 6/28/2026 at 2:44 AM, neil said:

Yeah he went up and beat Alvarez which was an impressive performance but I don't really rate Alvarez as "one of the best champs"...as he'd soon find out going up against Khabib.

Absolutely. And at the time, it was actually Khabib who was supposed to get the title shot against Alvarez, to the point I think contracts were even signed, but he was passed over in favour of McGregor. Looking back, I think the Khabib vs McGregor beef can be traced back to that moment. Before that, I don’t remember much interaction between them at all. But Khabib was pissed about that and I believe that’s where his “this is number one bullshit” quote came from. And that’s why after he beat Michael Johnson on the McGregor vs Alvarez undercard, he made a point of calling out the bullshit and having a dig at McGregor.

It’s a long winded way of saying it but, getting around to your point, yeah McGregor’s win over Alvarez was a great performance but the win itself isn’t this incredible achievement it’s often made out to be. I’m a big fan of Eddie Alvarez but he always had his flaws and he turned out to be a great matchup for Conor stylistically. Had someone else been the champ at the time, I think it’s very likely that Conor never touches gold at 155. And the whole ‘champ champ’ thing wouldn’t have happened for him. I think that’s why the UFC switched plans and gave him the shot over Khabib in the first place. You can’t guarantee anything but they probably recognised that Conor’s chances of winning that second belt were much higher against a wide open scrapper like Alvarez. Had Khabib got first dibs against Alvarez as originally planned, he’d have beat Eddie and then McGregor was never getting his grubby hands on that belt. 

On 6/28/2026 at 11:15 AM, jimufctna24 said:

McGregor's ATG case is indeed based on peak more than longevity. 

Yep, and his peak was at 145. The Alvarez win was the one exception of him looking at his best above 145 but, overall, he was never quite the same fighter when he moved up in weight. He was a great Featherweight and nothing more. But because of his star power, the hysteria that always surrounded him and his weirdly obsessed fan base, they don’t wanna accept that and I think that’s why they desperately cling to that Alvarez performance as proof that he was great beyond 145. It’s all matchup dependent though. And like I said, had someone else been 155 champ at the time, especially if it was Khabib, things would’ve gone a lot differently. Like this recent Heavyweight move for Alex Pereira. Had he moved up against another Heavyweight, he might’ve done better or even won. Gane was a tricky style for him though. One good win or one bad loss in a weight class doesn’t give you an overall picture. And at 155, aside from that Alvarez win, Conor’s resume doesn’t really hold up.

Here’s how he did by division in the UFC…

Featherweight: 7-0 with 6 knockouts. Notable wins over Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes, Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway.

Lightweight: 1-3. Had the above mentioned stellar performance against Alvarez. Then got his soul taken by Khabib and went 0-2 against Poirier.

Welterweight: 2-1. Got choked by Nate Diaz, avenged the loss by beating Nate in the rematch but only managed a decision and still had his moments of looking ropey. Then bashed up a shot Cerrone in seconds. A Cerrone who was coming off back-to-back stoppage losses going into that fight and to this day has never won a fight again.

And despite all this, my timeline is fucking rammed with twats acting like it’s still 2015 and he’s gonna put on a masterclass. I almost forgot just how insufferable McGregor arse lickers were in the run up to his fights. The weird, cult-like delusion is like nothing I’ve seen with any other fighter. I’ll be glad when it’s all over. 

[Chili]

I haven't got a fucking lick of interest in watching MMA but I might pop in here more just to read @wandshogun09write-ups. They're great.

[Lorne Malvo]

2 hours ago, Chili said:

I haven't got a fucking lick of interest in watching MMA but I might pop in here more just to read @wandshogun09write-ups. They're great.

This is what I do. I've no idea who any of the people are and don't care to find out, but still read every thread just because of the quality of the writing. 

[Bruce85]

I don’t want Max to win this be a quick KO. I want 5 rounds of absolute one way violence. I want Max to beat the shit out of him, most amounts of significant strikes landed, most knock downs and biggest discrepancy in strikes against each-other. 
 

Tbh I don’t even want to watch the main event, I certainly won’t pay for it. I want Max to beat him into permanent retirement. No 30 second KO that he can latch onto and say it was fluke. I want 25 minutes of attempted murder. 
 

I honestly just can’t fathom how anyone would cheer on that piece of shit. It really is crazy when I think I about how he burst on the scene, then the win against Dennis Siver, the win against Mendes, going on to become double champ and the desire to fight anyone and anytime was such a massive moment and era for ufc and sports as a whole. But his actions, mostly outside of the cage have been horrid. 
 

Was he always a piece of shit who hid it well or did the fame and subsequent loss to Khbib transform him. Either way I hope this is the last we ever see of him in the UFC. 

[Carbomb]

Apparently Ethyn Ewing's had to pull out through injury.

[wandshogun09]

On 7/2/2026 at 12:32 AM, Carbomb said:

Apparently Ethyn Ewing's had to pull out through injury.

Yeah disappointing. Was genuinely one of my favourite fights on the prelims and I was happy to see Ewing get on a big card. They’ll probably shove him back in the Apex again now.

One week away from this one now and the McGregor arse tonguers are in full flow. We all know what they’re like but it’s been that long I honestly forgot just how bad they are in the run up to his fights. Jesus Christ. Like I forgot how they have to hate anyone he’s fighting. How is anyone hating Max Holloway? Well, they’re finding ways to somehow. It’s been the same forever. I don’t remember Aldo or Poirier having any haters until they were booked against McGregor. Same with Dos Anjos when he was supposed to fight McGregor then pulled out with a broken foot. His foot was twice the size it should’ve been, looked like Sherman Klump’s foot, and they were calling him a pussy and a coward for pulling out. With Max, every time I’ve seen a post about him, or a post by him, the comments are full of the little rats giving him shit. It’s proper weird. It’s Max. There’s nothing to dislike there.

The latest thing I’ve seen is this pic of Max was put out…

And apparently this is proof he’s “fooked” against McGregor. Endless accounts going “What happened to Max?” He got a haircut and shaved the goatee. He’s one of them people who oddly looks older without facial hair. That’s it. But it’s like everyone’s looking for every little reason to convince themselves Conor’s got this in the bag. There’s one account on Twitter that kills me, think he’s called ‘Blind Bear’ or something and he’s constantly posting pro-Conor shite and acting like this is gonna be easy work. Looks like a young kid as well. Probably wasn’t even a fan during Conor’s active years. So he presumably became a fan during the Rapist Conor era. He’s going so deep on the McGregor rimming that I think his world might fall apart if Max wallops him.

This is all gonna be insufferable as we get further into fight week as well. I’ve already seen BKFC President Dave Feldman trot out the old “this is the best Conor we’ve ever seen” bollocks. I was wondering when we were gonna hear that old classic. Press conference should be Thursday. Doubt I’ll watch. Just can’t stand even hearing the rapist speak anymore, no chance I can sit through all the media and fans kissing his arse as well. But you just know that whatever happens at the press conference and during the fight week face-offs and stuff, we’re gonna hear “Max looks terrified”. That’s an old McGregor fan favourite that one. I think we heard that about every single McGregor opponent during his big years. Clearly remember people saying Khabib looked shit scared after McGregor spent the whole presser screaming. How did that work out? I even remember people saying Mayweather “looked like he was shitting himself” before their fight. Worst and most unbearable fanbase ever, and that was even before they started dismissing and defending the rape stuff. It was never enough to just be a fan of their guy. They have to hate the opponent and convince themselves and everyone else that the opponent is terrified as well. It’s hilarious.

I just hope that 1) Max wins, 2) it’s in brutal fashion and 3) there’s no controversy. Seeing Conor getting battered is always a good time but the fallout and the breakdown his fans would have if he gets dismantled will be glorious. The confidence they seem to have in a junkie who’s been out five years is mental. I don’t wanna hear the excuses if he gets wrecked here but you know they’re coming. Get ready for a mad switch up if he loses. It’s all “best Conor ever” and “Max has no chance” and “the layoff/injury won’t be a factor” and “Max is out of his depth at 170” now. They can fuck off with the excuses after the fact. 

Edited July 4 by wandshogun09

[Dai]

Shouldn't give them the time of day, these people! Not much upside in reading the thoughts of morons.

[wandshogun09]

True but it’s not just coming from random fan accounts. Like I said, Dave Feldman’s giving it loads. Of course, BKFC are in bed with McGregor so it’s to be expected. But still. I’ve seen Megan Olivi say she’s expecting “the old Conor” or some shite. Various media trying to plant seeds and be pro-McGregor. And obviously, chief of the McGregor PR campaign Helwani is gonna need his lips surgically removed from McGregor’s bellend by this time next week. All of them ignoring the bad shit. The comment sections and stuff, yeah that’s on me. I know better than to read that shite but I end up seeing it regardless. It’s hard to avoid when it’s everywhere.