Former two division UFC champion Conor McGregor hasn’t won a bout in over three years, but Holloway remembers a time when McGregor ruled the UFC and the world.
“When Conor beat Aldo in December 2015 and when he beat Eddie in November 2016, for those 12 months, he ruled the world,” Holloway said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show (via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). “The world. Not just the UFC, the world. And the one thing I can remember and take away from that time was his focus. He was so focused. He decided what he wanted, and he said stuff, he pointed at this guy, he reached for the stars, he reached for the moon, and he made it happen. Magical.”
McGregor and Holloway fought once before at UFC Fight Night 26 in August of 2013, with McGregor scoring a unanimous decision win on that night.
Holloway is interested in another bout with McGregor, but only if McGregor is at his best.
“I’m not interested in competing with him if he’s not at his best,” Holloway said. “And he doesn’t seem healthy, and he doesn’t sound right. If he comes back and he says, ‘Hey, I beat Max when he was a kid, but I want to beat him in his prime to prove that I’m the best ever,’ then yeah I want the champ. I want that champ. I want that 2015-2016 champ. That mentality and that focus, and right now it’s just not interesting to me. I want to fight the best Conor McGregor. So he can go figure things out, and he can let us know.”
UFC 245 takes place on Saturday, December 14 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
