McGregor disputes UFC 329 stoppage and demands Holloway trilogy after knee injury loss

Conor McGregor has publicly demanded a trilogy fight with Max Holloway, disputing the circumstances of his first-round TKO loss at UFC 329 in July and accusing Holloway of being the one who sought the stoppage.

Holloway was awarded the technical knockout victory after McGregor suffered a knee injury during the main event. Speaking at the BKFC Glasgow post-fight press conference, McGregor insisted he was capable of fighting on and directed his frustration squarely at his opponent.

“It has to be Holloway,” McGregor said. “Just do the f**king thing again. Just do the thing again. The guy didn’t engage once. He’s the one that called for the stoppage of the fight. He said, ‘Ref, ref!’ He’s the one stopping the fight.”

McGregor maintained that the result does not reflect what would have happened had the fight continued, claiming Holloway was keeping his distance throughout the round.

“Imagine I’d have just said, ‘Yes, yay,’ and jumped the fence. I won. He doesn’t want to f**king fight,” McGregor said. “I’d have done him on the one leg. He wasn’t coming near me.”

The former two-division UFC champion, who has now lost back-to-back fights, said the ending of UFC 329 continues to weigh on him emotionally and that only a rematch will provide closure.

“So shocking and so heartbreaking to me, and I’m still dealing with it,” McGregor said. “But it has to be Holloway. Come on, just dust it off. Redo it.”

McGregor and Holloway first met in 2013, with McGregor winning by unanimous decision. Their UFC 329 rematch was the first time the two had shared the octagon in over a decade. No response from Holloway or the UFC regarding a potential trilogy has been made public.