​Conor McGregor has a challenging task ahead as he gears up for his highly anticipated UFC 329 return against Max Holloway this Saturday. In preparation for the comeback bout, McGregor’s head coach promises that the former two-division UFC champion has pulled out all the stops to ensure he’s at his best.
It’s been five years since McGregor last stepped into the Octagon for his trilogy clash with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. Throughout his hiatus, there were moments when the Irish superstar seemed destined to stay on the sidelines indefinitely. Yet his longtime coach at SBG Ireland, John Kavanagh, revealed on Wednesday that he realized McGregor was serious about returning to fighting the moment the fighter essentially moved into the gym around Christmas time last year.
During an in-studio appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show in Las Vegas, Kavanagh admitted that while he initially thought having McGregor live at SBG was a fantastic idea, he didn’t truly expect it to last. He even joked that he expected only a brief stint. “I had a storage room, and he asked if he could put a bed in it,” Kavanagh recalled. “A couple of nights a week, he was sleeping there, especially on sparring days.”
Kavanagh described the ongoing effort to ensure McGregor’s readiness over the past six months, emphasizing the focused mindset required when you’re living and training in a high-intensity gym environment from dawn to dusk. He likened the experience to a “Rocky III” moment, where the fighter returns to the gym, finds the eye of the tiger, and redoubles his commitment to reclaim his peak form.
The road back for McGregor has been arduous. He suffered a first-round TKO loss to Poirier in their 2021 rematch, followed by the devastating fracture of his leg in the final seconds of that bout. A planned comeback against Michael Chandler in June 2024 was scrapped after McGregor sustained a broken pinky toe. Given the severity of his previous injury, concerns about McGregor’s health in potential future performances have been widespread. Yet Kavanagh insists that every precaution has been taken to maximize McGregor’s health and performance for UFC 329.
“We’ve been super careful this training camp. He has not a niggle on him, not a bump, not a bruise — 100%. We’ll get to see the best version of him,” Kavanagh said. He acknowledged a misperception McGregor once had about the cause of his earlier injury, clarifying that the fault did not lie with him. While a misstep is never completely out of the question in combat sports, Kavanagh remains confident in the meticulous preparation that has gone into this campaign.
McGregor is no stranger to high-stakes moments, whether it’s challenging Jose Aldo in 2015 or pursuing a second UFC title at Madison Square Garden’s historic MMA event in 2016. Kavanagh has stood beside his fighter since the very beginning, dedicating countless hours to help McGregor reach the heights they eventually achieved.
Yet those peak moments have also been accompanied by significant lows. Since the partnership began, both McGregor and Kavanagh have navigated triumphs and setbacks alike, shaping a journey that has become synonymous with extraordinary ambition, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of greatness. As the UFC 329 showdown with Holloway approaches, the emphasis remains on delivering the best version of Conor McGregor, the version that many fans and analysts believe is still capable of redefining the sport.