​According to UFC CEO Dana White, Saturday’s UFC 329 event will establish a new all-time live gate record for the promotion as Conor McGregor makes his long-awaited return. The show is headlined by McGregor, a former two-division UFC champion, who last fought in July 2021. In the main event, McGregor meets Max Holloway, the former UFC featherweight champion, in a highly anticipated rematch. UFC 329 is scheduled for T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and will be streamed on Paramount+.
“The Conor McGregor effect is huge,” White told ESPN. “Our biggest gate ever was UFC 306 at the Sphere, which brought in $22 million, and this one is set to surpass that with about $25 million. This is the biggest gate in UFC history for his return. The city is buzzing.”
With this announcement, McGregor will have headlined four of the five largest live gates in UFC history. Before UFC 306, the UFC’s live gate record was held by UFC 205, which generated approximately $17.7 million. The next two highest events are UFC 229, with about $17.19 million, and UFC 300, at roughly $16.51 million.
The UFC 329 lineup also features notable bouts such as Paddy Pimblett vs. Benoit Saint-Denis, Mario Bautista vs. Cory Sandhagen, Lone’er Kavanagh vs. Brandon Royval, King Green vs. Terrance McKinney, Nikita Krylov vs. Robert Whittaker, Elisha Ellison vs. Gable Steveson, Cody Garbrandt vs. Adrian Yanez, Kai Kamaka III vs. Luke Riley, Cong Wang vs. Tracy Cortez, Cesar Almeida vs. Damian Pinas, Farid Basharat vs. John Garza, Ryan Gandra vs. Zach Reese, and Alessandro Costa vs. Cody Durden.
This event marks the latest in a pattern of McGregor-led announcements about his return to competition. Previously, in April 2024, the UFC announced McGregor vs. Michael Chandler as the headliner for UFC 303, with White expressing optimism that the event would set a new live gate benchmark of $20 million or more. However, McGregor withdrew from UFC 303 in mid-June due to a broken toe, leaving the card—headlined by a light heavyweight title bout between then-champion Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka—still on the books but with a notably lower live gate of about $15.91 million.
UFC 306 later became the first event to exceed the $20 million live gate, drawing $21,829,245 at the Sphere in Las Vegas with an attendance of 16,024. Ticket prices for UFC 329 have not yet been disclosed. The event anchors International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
McGregor, now 37, is 22-6 and has been inactive since a 2021 defeat to Holloway—his last win coming January 2020 in a TKO over Donald Cerrone. He has suffered back-to-back TKO losses to Dustin Poirier and has endured a layoff following a broken leg that halted his 2021 bout. Holloway, who has fought eight times since McGregor’s last appearance, has gone 5-3 in that stretch, with losses in title bouts to Charles Oliveira, Ilia Topuria, and Alex Volkanovski, among others. This matchup is being positioned to deliver substantial attention and a potential leap in pay-per-view and gate revenue as fans await the highly anticipated return of one of the sport’s biggest stars.