Dana White Stalls McGregor’s Holloway Trilogy While Rivals Line Up

Conor McGregor told fans this week his final UFC fight has to be a third meeting with Max Holloway. UFC CEO Dana White answered on Friday with four words: “Not even thinking about it.”

McGregor still needs surgery on the knee that gave out 69 seconds into his UFC 329 comeback, and White is not building a rematch around a wish posted on social media. Holloway walked out of T-Mobile Arena unhurt, already has a UFC contender publicly asking for his next fight, and does not have to wait around on anyone’s surgeon.

Dana White Won’t Promise Anything Yet

White’s comments came during a Friday interview with the Spinnin Backfist podcast, where he was asked directly about McGregor’s public request for a third Holloway fight. He did not sound like a promoter building toward a date.

“Conor still has to have knee surgery and go through everything he’s going to have to go through,” White said, adding that McGregor is “older,” hasn’t fought in five years, and that “Father Time is undefeated.”

He was blunter about the timeline. “So who the f*ck knows what’s going to happen with Max over the next year and what’s going to happen with Conor over the next year?” White said, framing the next twelve months as unknowable for both fighters rather than a runway toward a specific fight.

White did confirm one thing: he and McGregor have already spoken since the loss. He also said he has not thought about how the UFC would promote McGregor’s eventual return, given how the comeback ended. “I don’t even think about that type of stuff until it becomes a reality,” he said, adding he wants to hear directly from McGregor that physical therapy is finished and doctors have cleared him to train at full contact before any planning starts.

The Man Who Left Healthy

Holloway’s side of this is simpler. He won, in 69 seconds, without a mark on him, and he made his own pitch for a third fight before he even left the cage.

Let’s give it up for Conor McGregor, guys. What an absolute animal.

Holloway said that to a booing T-Mobile Arena crowd moments after the stoppage, before telling fans there’s going to be a Holloway vs. McGregor 3 now. It was generous framing for a fighter who trained a full camp for a bout that produced no real competition.

The rivalry now sits at 1-1. McGregor won their first meeting by decision in 2013, when both were rising featherweights, a fight in which McGregor himself tore his ACL yet fought through it to the scorecards. Holloway evened the series at welterweight on July 11, this time by TKO. Sportsbooks had McGregor opening as a heavy underdog against Holloway before the fight even started, a detail that now sits underneath McGregor’s push to have the result thrown out and his bets refunded.

Holloway also has his own résumé to think about. He is coming off snapping a stretch that included a loss to Charles Oliveira in March, and a signature win over a returning legend is worth more to him than an open date on the calendar.

Pimblett and the Others Circling Holloway

McGregor was not the only fighter finishing a bout that night. Paddy Pimblett, a 29-year-old Liverpool lightweight, had already submitted Benoit Saint Denis to improve to 8 and 1 in the UFC, and he wasted no time naming his next target.

“I’ll get in with Max now,” Pimblett said, referencing Holloway’s sudden need for a new opponent once McGregor’s night ended in injury. Former title challenger Chael Sonnen has separately pushed publicly for the same Pimblett-Holloway pairing, adding outside pressure to a matchup that does not require McGregor to be healthy, cleared, or even willing to fight again.

Nothing in White’s own answer suggested he expects Holloway to sit still. Combine a fighter openly campaigning for the fight with a champion who just proved he does not need to wait, and McGregor’s timeline stops being the only one that matters.

How Long Will McGregor’s Knee Keep Him Out?

No official diagnosis has been released. Dana White and the doctors he has consulted are working off the assumption of a torn ACL, an injury that outlets covering the case have estimated at nine to eighteen months of recovery depending on severity, and it is McGregor’s third serious leg injury since 2013.

The pattern is what makes this one sting. Here is how the same body part has failed him, twice against the same opponent.

1. 2013: McGregor tore the ACL in his right knee during his first fight against Holloway at featherweight, but the bout went the distance and McGregor won by decision anyway.
2. July 2021: McGregor broke his left tibia against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, a loss that opened a five-year absence from the octagon.
3. July 2026: The same right knee buckled again on the opening kick of the Holloway rematch at UFC 329, ending the fight in 69 seconds.

Dr. David Chao, a former NFL team physician, posted a preliminary read on social media within minutes of the stoppage, flagging concern for the ACL and MCL along with a possible patella issue, though he noted he was working from video, not imaging. McGregor left the arena without doing a post-fight interview, was seen limping, and declined the use of crutches. He has denied entering the fight with any pre-existing injury.

UFC 329 Broke Records the Fight Itself Couldn’t

Sixty-nine seconds of action still did more business than almost any card in UFC history, and that is the part that keeps McGregor’s name valuable no matter what his knee looks like on a scan.

Paramount’s own release called it the most-streamed exclusive live event in the platform’s history outside a Super Bowl, and confirmed the 15.9 million viewers who tuned in across the US and Latin America. Dana White separately put the live gate at roughly $25 million, breaking the promotion’s previous record of $21.8 million set at UFC 306.

The White House card’s 17 million total still edges UFC 329 out, but that comparison had already drawn scrutiny once this year, after a rival promotion’s MVP MMA ratings win claim over the UFC pushed retired fighter Matt Brown to dispute the comparison publicly. Whatever the exact ranking, McGregor’s name alone pulled in the kind of audience the UFC does not get from most main events, injury or not.

One Fight Left on a Contract, No Date on a Calendar

McGregor has called his next fight the last one on his current UFC deal. He also wants Saturday’s result wiped from the books entirely, asking publicly for the loss to be changed to a no contest and for bettors to get their money back while he waits on the results of a leg scan.

White’s own answer treated all of it, the trilogy, the contract, the no-contest request, as the same unanswered question. The same Friday interview also had him waving off an entirely different rematch idea floated by MMA reporters, though he did not shut the door on Holloway the way he shut it on that one.

Here is what realistically has to happen before any of it becomes a real fight date rather than a social media post.

• Official diagnosis and surgery – McGregor says he is awaiting leg scan results before doctors can operate.
• Full medical clearance – White wants to hear directly from McGregor that physical therapy is done and he’s been cleared to train at full contact.
• New contract terms – McGregor has already called his next fight the last on his current deal, so a trilogy would need fresh terms to exist at all.
• Holloway’s open calendar – with Pimblett already asking for a fight, Holloway may not have a date open whenever McGregor is finally ready.

Asked flatly what comes next for McGregor, White gave the only honest answer available to him right now.

“I don’t know,” White said. “I’m not even thinking about any of that stuff. It’s so long and so far away, it doesn’t matter.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Conor McGregor’s UFC 329 Loss Be Changed to a No Contest?

McGregor asked publicly for the result to be ruled a no contest and for wagers to be refunded while he awaits leg scan results, but no such change has been announced by the UFC. A first-round stoppage for injury typically stands as the official result once a referee has waved off the fight.

How Long Is Recovery for the Knee Injury McGregor Suffered?

No official diagnosis has been released, but Dana White and the doctors he has consulted are working off the assumption of a torn ACL. Outlets covering the injury have estimated recovery at nine to eighteen months depending on severity, a range that would push any comeback well into 2027.

What Is Paddy Pimblett’s UFC Record After UFC 329?

Pimblett improved to 8 and 1 in the UFC after submitting Benoit Saint Denis in the card’s co-main event. He used his post-fight comments to ask Dana White directly for a fight against Max Holloway.

Is a McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Boxing Rematch Still Possible?

Dana White pushed back on that idea during the same Friday interview after MMA reporters raised it, saying he was not interested in a fight fans have already seen once and pointing instead to the trilogy McGregor already has waiting with Holloway.